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This is a journey of pain and my experiences of the emergency dentist. I am sharing this because the experience has not been a good one and it could have been so different if I had been given the care that I should have been entitled to.
Its 11.pm and I have not long been up because I went to bed at 7pm for a lie down fully clothed!
Have you ever woken up wondering what time it is and wondering too why you still have your clothes on?
I have had the most horrendous time over the past 7 days……Toothache or rather, a massive festering abscess under my back crowned tooth. Not a nice experience and the pain…well nothing can describe it. It is like having an open nerve and some invisible body is twisting a knife slowly round and round, and it does not stop!
I am actually disappointed at the treatment I received from the emergency dentist. I went there on Saturday after not having a good night sleep and having to take 400mg ibuprofen throughout the night, because that is all I had. I think my sister-in-law gave me some paracetamol+ but they didn’t work!
Infact the pain was not as severe then, but my night sleep was not good and by the morning, I decided to go to the emergency dentist. I turned up at 10am expecting to be seen and was told I could not see anyone because I did not have an appointment! I did explain that my toothache was getting worse. Did you have to make an appointment before you had the emergency?
I was not very pleased and came away feeling totally helpless. I cried in the car because the toothache was getting worse and there wasn’t anything I could do about it. I was thinking about the night ahead.
I arrived back at my friend Gillians and I managed to spend the day working on the computer and taking some heavy-duty painkillers from the chemist. Apparently Paramol a mixture of paracetamol plus dihydrocodeine are the strongest that you can buy over the counter. So being a person that never takes tablets or drugs I spent the day taking these and ibuprofen because you are not supposed to take more than 2 tablets every 4 hours of the high strength ones. I dread to think what my insides are like. I had the most horrendous night sleep and the pain became unbearable.
My mouth in the morning had swollen and I looked like a hamster. The swelling had started to extend over the left hand side of my face and it was a big surprise to see myself in the mirror, all swollen and lopsided. I rushed back to the emergency dentist for 9am. The receptionist had told me there was a limit on the amount of patients they took so I had better get there early.
The clocks had just gone back and I think people were still in bed, so I was lucky to be number 6.
“What’s wrong with you?” he said. “Can’t you see the swelling in my face?” I thought, pointing to my slightly over enlarged cheek and jaw. I cried, not much, because I don’t mind dentists but I think it was the simple fact of being able to see someone who might be able to help. I think he thought I was a little bit over emotional and he sent me back into the waiting room after giving me a few deep injections. He did question whether the tooth was the right one because I couldn’t feel anything when he started prodding around. I had taken the pain killers otherwise nobody could have touched that tooth.
“Not a good idea”, he said…. “To take painkillers.” ”It is, if you had toothache like me,” I
thought!
He pulled my tooth and sent me away with a large wad of cotton wool mopping up the blood. That was it!
I think I was in shock and I did ask him, “Is that it?” “Should I see my doctor, dentist, whoever?” “If you want “ he said.
Oh, he did suggest I sit in the waiting room until I felt better because I was a bit disorientated and I needed to drive 12 miles home. When I eventually got home I took to my bed and didn’t get up for anything, but the world still turned around me, and people cope!
Monday morning was not good! I had taken a couple of the painkillers to dull the night’s pain. I was definitely off my food and I couldn’t eat anyway.
I was going into Cyberskills, a fantastic place nearby that offers free help in my county for everything that you need to build your business. I could have spent the day in bed but my appointment was booked and I was meeting someone there. Fred, the saviour of all websites and who has helped me build two sites, said, “You look terrible, you ought to go and see your doctor”.
I managed to squeeze an appointment in because I did feel lousy and the receptionist commented on my swollen mouth and the redness that had started to spread down into my chest area.
By the time I got to the surgery at 5pm my throat was hurting and the redness had started to spread out little tentacles of redness further down into my chest area. My face was turning a deeper shade of pink and my chest looked like I was wearing one of those heavy Egyptian necklaces.
The doctor was horrified to know that I had been sent away with nothing and rang the local dental department in the main hospital nearby. He apologetically sent me away with two sets of anti biotic 600mg of ‘lets kill the infection off’ tablets.” If it goes into the bone it could be serious”, he said. “Nice to know!” I thought.
I have to admit that they did work immediately and the redness had calmed down by the morning, but they don’t stop you from feeling unwell. The swelling has reduced dramatically and the redness has paled. I am still off my food, which isn’t a bad thing because I wanted to lose some weight! I don’t feel well and I might have to go back to my very kindly ‘strawberry field’s GP. (He loves growing them!)
Going against the grain too, I will have to finish the course of anti- biotic tablets because I am a healthy everything natural type of person who would love now to be living the simple life somewhere more balanced and untouched by so much consumerism. But that another blog for another day. And if you want to know a little bit more log onto my website at www.heavenfelts.com
Ps. I have diversified a little bit with this blog from my initial content but it made such a big impact on me I had to share the experience!
