Ow. I Hate Mouth Pain.

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

It doesn’t hurt right now, thanks to the four Advil I just took, but the entire left side of my jaw has been just killing me for the last five days. I went to the dentist on Friday, and I found out why.

(close this thread now if you’re squeamish about dental work!)

Okay, I haven’t been to the dentist in about three years. Not because I’m scared, but because I’m lazy. But last week, my jaw just started hurting really really bad. It felt like a toothache. So, I went to the dentist. I still have the two wisdom teeth on the left side–that is, I’ll have them until Wednesday. I have to get them pulled, and the dentist is not going to wait. On the tooth on the lower left, under the gumline, there’s a cyst. He showed it to me on the X-ray. It’s pretty darn visible, even for someone like me who doesn’t know jack about X-rays.

The dentist said that if I don’t get it take out ASAP, and it happens to burst, it could do real damage to my jawbone. He also said it’s mildly infected now, and that it’s probably been chronically infected for quite some time. That most likely explains why I’ve been feeling rather under the weather since last summer. If I’ve got this chronic low-grade infection, it’s got to be lowering my immunities to other stuff, thus making me more suceptible to other stuff.

So, out come the teeth. Fun fun fun. Dental work really doesn’t bother me all that much, but this is a little more serious than I’m used to, and I know I’m going to feel like crap afterwards. I can deal with pain. Hey, after one has given birth three times without benefit of drugs, one’s entire definition of pain changes. But this I will admit–mouth pain is abso-freakin’-lutely miserable. It reduces me to an even deeper level of blithering imbecility than I’m usually at.

Oh, but you know what’s even worse than having these teeth removed? There’s some spots of decalcification (not quite cavities, but almost) on some of my teeth. The doctor said that the fact that I am a Coca-Cola junkie has a lot to do with that, and told me I’d better switch to diet. So I did.

Man, how do you people drink this stuff?

2

It does make one pause and give serious consideration to whomever it was who suggested the inventor of novocaine for a MacArthur genius grant and the Nobel Peace Prize. I once had eight teeth extracted over the course of two weeks, so I definitely symphathize (I was getting braces and my uncooperative baby teeth weren’t falling out in time).

3

Just to reiterate the point FRICKIN’ OOWWWWIEEEEE. Thankfully I’ve never had any dental work done simply becaue I’ve never had a cavity or any bad thingies happen to my teeth. I’ve never experienced a toothache or anything along the sorts, but the instant I read the OP makes me think my god man that has got to be painful. For real though good luck with everything they do to your teeth.

4

ouch, persephone, i feel your pain.

well, not really, because i have never had anything really <i>disastrous</i> happen to my pearly whites, but i HATE mouth pain. i’ve had my share of drilling and filing of teeth, and teeth pain is the absolute worst pain ever.

i am a fairly masochistic person - whips, chains, the works. i got hot sauce residue in my eye last week (wiped my eyes with tainted hands) and enjoyed it. i like pain, a lot. but i absolutely CANNOT STAND mouth pain. teeth pain is like fingernails on a blackboard translated into a physical ailment, and i shudder just to think of it.

i hope they drug you up real good : )

5

Persephone, I’ve had a bunch of dental work and I really feel for you. I also have a friend who had a cyst under his wisdom tooth and had to have the tooth and the cyst removed. He’d been getting low-grade infections for a while, and since it’s been out he hasn’t had any problems. The post-surgical pain lasted for three or four days, IIRC.

My dentist has me using an over-the-counter fluoride gel for my sensitive teeth/receding gum/decalcification problems. It’s helped a lot, I think - you might ask if it’s something you should try.

Good luck with it, and remember - Percocet. Refuse to leave the office without a prescription.

6

I can definitely sympathize with you dear. I just had a tooth extracted just last week myself. My jaw was really sore and my cheek swelled up pretty big, but it went down after a couple of days. The Vicodin I was taking relieved the pain, but turned me into a drooling brain-dead mass of goo for a couple of days there.

Hang in there kid. Just lay in bed, take your pain pills, and make Tim wait on you hand and foot :slight_smile:

7

Persephone, that sounds awful. But can we opine about pain in other mouth parts as well? I’ve never had a tooth ache, but, I’ll be damned if I didn’t have the most ferocious sore throat about 6 months ago. I was reduced to eating soft foods for a week. Nothing gave me relief. Everytime I swallowed, I involuntarily made this OOWWIIEE face. I kept trying to see the affected area with a flaslight and mirror setup, thinking somehow, that confirming it looked bad would make me feel better. I wondered if it would ever end.

Really gives you pause to think about folks that live with this level of pain chronically.