Ohhh my tooth ...

The other advice part: if you can get someone else to pay for it, go with Dr Tridico on ... Downman Blvd, I think. Might be Crowder. I'm pretty sure it's Downman. Out in the East. Don't be bothered by the neighborhood -- he's the best dentist around, totally painless, and will give you Vicodin if you need it.

(He took care of my massively-impacted wisdom teeth and sold me a Sonicare toothbrush).

The third advice part: it takes a fair bit of alcohol to numb tooth pain, and in the morning your whole head will feel like a cavity that's been filled with ow.

The phony expression of pity: Aw.

Dr. Tridico, New Orleans East. Yes, I'm desperate enough I might call Mom. Though I'm wondering if I can stick it out long enough to fill out a request at work for dental insurance and wait for the insurance to kick in ... Haha, who am I kidding, no, I can't stick it out that long. OK, thanks Tep. How's Indiana???? Getting much writing done?? Up until the tooth pain zapped my spirits I was on a creativity roll for a while ...

Indiana is ... green. And hot. Today it was hotter here than it was there, which is strange and wrong but is probably because you guys are underwater! (I've seen photographs taken today of my friends' apartment complex and the foot of water covering their parking lot.)

Bill wreaks havoc in my wake. Bwahaha.

I lived in Michigan City, Indiana for a long time, right on Lake Michigan. They said "the lake effect" kept things cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter and I didn't believe them. Now I do.

Hrmph, "lake effect." I lived practically right on the lake in New Orleans! Don't tell me you've ever driven over the Causeway and gone, "aw yeah, that's it, nice and cool now."

Snakes? Hurricane kit? I was just gonna get a canoe. Guess I'll have to re-think my emergency procedure strategies.

Anyway I've had a rough week so don't talk about snakes. I prefer my fantasy world of placid rain water and canoes.

i had my last wisdow tooth extracted on tuesday and it hurts. i'm worried i have dry socket. has anyone here had dry socket?

One of mine was so bad last night it kept me up half the night. I think I need to try and find a dentist to register with today.

What the hell's a dry socket? I had an inflamed (or whatever it was) nerve that made me crawl on the ceilings. I went to the dentist. She "killd" it. But apparently I had this weird inherited "flaw" which consists of me having a split nerve in my front tooth. THe other part decided to hurt me too. Went back and they killed that fucker too. Man, tooth pain can fuck you up.

Nathalie: this is the dutch explanation of a dry socket

Oh good, I have found one that can see me in a week. Ow.

"You have a choice, we can extract it for £50 or fix it for um... £196. What do you want to do?"

It's another week before they can take it out. Ow.

I miss Jewlley what happened to her?

After cancelling twice I was finally on the road to my middle-of-nowhere dentist y/day when the bastard called and cancelled on ME. Now I suffer till next week.

Do you ever feel as if your teeth have shifted around? I'm sure mine are, but all my wisdoms are through.

Maybe her tooth pain was the only thing that drove her to reach out to the internet community, and once her mom paid for the dentist she went on to live a healthy, fulfilled life.

Hey, with American money being worth nothing at the moment, maybe I should go to the States to get my baby tooth replaced. Hasn't been hurting lately, though, so I've been ignoring it again.

Yeah, you should wait. A full-fledged toothache would make interminable airline delays and security strip-searches much more fun.

FUCKING SHIT

Advil Extra-Strength gels, my friend. And don't let them lapse, either -- set your alarm to wake up and take another dose after like 5 hours or so. Ice on the gums, swishing warm salt water over the spot, a few things can help.

Laurel OTM. Also, uh, go see a dentist if you have the insurance or can afford it.

thx Laurel. I am coasting on Orajel right now but that stuff wears off quick.

If the gum itself is swollen, you could benefit from the warm saltwater-swilling, it reduces swelling and taking the pressure off the tissues lessens the pain. But if the infection is way down in your root, take the Advil gels and get to the doctor for anti-biotics AT LEAST. Dental infections can kill you if they spread to kidneys or other organs and all that bacteria and rot is in your mouth and can be swallowed.

be careful with too much Advil. It will put a hole in your stomach and give you so much pain.

Laurel OTM. I found for toothpain way down inside advil works a thousand time better than tylenol or hyrdocodone

The facts:

(A) I have not been to see a dentist in approximately nine years.

(B) Four years ago, I knocked a chunk out of a filling-filled molar while eating an egg-roll. I considered getting this looked at/dealt with at the time, but didn't, due to being poor; scared shitless of any dental procedures involving drills, blades and/or pliers; didn't actually hurt at the time (or for quite a while afterward)

(C) For the past year or so, the same tooth has been bothering me slightly when I put cold substances in that side of my mouth.

(D) Today, out of the blue, it just started HURTING & it won't stop. In fact, the pain seems to be building. When will it stop? I fear it may be time to pay the piper.

(E) I do not have dental insurance. What if I suck it up & go to a dentist, only to find out that, in addition to dealing with the rotten/broken molar, I also have twenty other lurking problems which need to be dealt with (not unlikely, see Fact A) & thus another heaping shovelful on top of my already rapidly-accumulating medical debt.

(F) I am also sick right now (with either food poisoning or, more likely, some subvariety of the flu), making this situation even more epecially tragi-comic.

(G) ouch! it hurts!

(H) [..more self pity]

(I) I would like to have my teeth surgically replaced with a permanent set of plastic/titanium (or otherwise non-corrosive) dentures so I don't have to worry about this shit ever again!

Trust me I have dentist phobia, it's always better to go and get it sorted than to hang around worrying.

^^^^^

I went 7 years without going to a dentist, surprisingly I only had one issue to deal with (fucked up wisdom tooth that ended up just getting pulled). Felt so good to not have it hanging over my head again. Since then I've been to regular 6-month checkups and have been problem free.

I am having a similar problem to yours, Pillbox. I'd had a sensitive tooth for a few weeks but not worried much about it, until one night I began drinking a beer and what used to be sensitivity was intense, lingering pain. This started maybe a week ago, and the pain comes and goes, which is unfortunate. Also, the last time I went to the dentist was maybe 6 months ago, but before that it was more like 9 or 10 years. And they warned me that it looked like there was some decay, and that i would have to go back for a follow up and potentially a filling, but i blew that shit off cuz i was in a funk and not ready to deal with my dentophobia.

GOOD LUCK PILLBOX. Let me know what happens. I have no dental insurance, so I'm hoping it goes away on its own (which it won't, but please let me delude myself a bit longer.)

FYI pain has died down a bit & I am hoping to return to the refuge of sweet, sweet denial, at least for as long as it take me to flush the flu out of my system.

Update: pain has returned. Also, my gf returned home w/ a bottle of whiskey & now I am considering that most temporary of escape routes, even though I know it will likely be to the detriment of all my ailments. Am I on a one way trip to McGowan-town?

Pillbox advil works wonders but make sure you eat a little bread straight after. works better than codeine.

oh and you need to take like 4. this isnt time to be a pill wuss.

Thanks for the tip, Sunny. I have been taking generic Ibuprofen. Am I missing out on something by not going with the name brand?

no it should work as well but the dose and the bread is key

would grain alcohol be an acceptable substitute for the bread? ;)

ha

really though i went through broken tooth pain for months and its just not worth it. beg, borrow and/or steal to get it fixed.

bro u need a dentist not the internet this shit only ever gets worse and more $$$$$ 2 fix

yeah, I get that. But, as noted upthread, I also have the flu so, plus it is the freakin weekend (not that I'm gonna have me some fun but, you know, office hours), so all I can really do is annoy the shit out of my gf and whine about it online with yall.

gotcha

Am I on a one way trip to McGowan-town? - wow, I guess not. New teeth!

My Tooth Adventure by Pillbox

GOOD LUCK PILLBOX. Let me know what happens. I have no dental insurance, so I'm hoping it goes away on its own (which it won't, but please let me delude myself a bit longer.)

OK, just b/c I know you all are just dying to experience the full narrative arc of my recent dental tragi-comedy, here it is uncensored and unabridged:

Recap: Last Friday, while already grappling with the bitch-flu, I experienced surges of stabbing pain from a long-neglected broken molar. Perhaps a stress fracture brought on by a shitty filling, it only took an egg roll to break the tooth in the summer of '05. I ate some tooth with my roll, but otherwise experienced no pain, save for the occasional discomfort brought on by cold beverages, until this past Friday & then the shit just jumped off.

While relatively infrequent (once an hour or so), the pain surges increased with such severity that I made anguished after-hours calls to my gf's family dentist & my PCP. Both were unwilling to call in a prescription for pain scripts (my demeanor apparently suggested "hilariously desperate low-rent junkie"), but the dentist, one Dr. Moeller (rim-shot), agreed to see me for an emergency extraction the following day (Saturday) if the pain persisted.

But guess what? While the flu continued to literally beat the shit out of me the following day, my toothache had all but disappeared, and so I said "fuck the dentist. the dentist can wait, and actually would prefer to." Then, around 5pm, the pain crept up, this time slowly & steadily, until it reached a new height of sustained agony-induction. I ate so many Ibuprofen tablets that I ended up with stomach malady to rival that of the tooth (not really, just sayin). Bread too (sorry Sunny, no dice).

Finally, I discovered that, despite an initial shock of pain, ice water eventually served to numb it, albeit very temporarily. "Aha," I thought, "what better time than now to have in my freezer an absurd quantity of popsicles?" It's true: I really like popsicles, and I had recently purchased large boxes of both the lemon-ice & sugar-free/real-fruit-juice variety. This allowed me the ideal short-term solution of having a perpetual numbing agent (so as not to have to re-introduce my tooth to the coldness again & again) which would not fill me with flu-baiting sugar goo. It was win-win, and so I laid in bed, watched movies & ate 32 popsicles consecutively* (why not simply use ice-cubes? you may be asking. the answer: I do not own ice-cube trays).

*shout-out to ENBB

My gf being out of town for the day with our car (why, girlie, why?), I was left to my own devices to discover a solution that would allow me to sleep eventually (popsicles cannot be eaten whilst sleeping). This meant I had to walk a half-mile to a pharmacy, not the easiest thing to make yourself do when you're fucked with the tooth-flu, & purchase some "specialty items." Eventually I made my way there, popsicles in hand for the trip, & got myself some Ora-Gel & some medicated (with Benzo-ine, cause that's how I do!) tooth-hole-filling epoxy called "Toothache Gum." Given the lackluster reviews Ora-Gel has received in this very thread, I was skeptical of its potential, but the pharmacist on duty swore by it, so I just did what he said.

And.. Success! For those of you who may be looking to salvage a nugget of useful advice from this ramble, HERE IT IS: Should you find yourself with a broken tooth that hurts like bejeezus & you are unable or unwilling to see a dentist for a stretch of time, do as I have done. (A) Douse the shit out of the hole with the OG; (B) Cover that shit up with some TG; (C) Repeat every 3-4 hours or as necessary; (D) Do NOT mix the numbing quality of OG w/ anything remotely cold. You will not get popsicle-aid when you are using OG. It will sting like a motherfucker instead. OG, used on its own, fades very quickly. That is why you have to trap it in with some TG.

Seriously, this ^^ method served my particular needs so well that I was able to postpone seeing Dr. Moeller until today, allowing myself to both recover from the flu & spend a few marathon days catching up with my design work (my jobz) before subjecting myself to the evils of dentistry. And so we come to..

The Root Canal: To say that Dr. Moeller is a friend of (my gf's) family is to imply that he runs with a particular circle of Irish & Roman Catholics who are exceptionally spirited, loyal & warm individuals, among the finest people I have ever encountered. So, not having dental insurance, but having a "family" in, I was able to get slated for tooth-removal at the clean rate of $50. What luck! This also meant that Dr. Moeller, whose heart broke upon seeing my tooth at its most desperate, upped the ante once again to a $250 root-canal (a phenomonal bargain I'm told).

So I got myself a root canal today. To hear talk of such procedures, I suspected I was in for a rousing bout of terror/pain, but the root canal, or, at least my root canal is actually one of the more preferable "big, scary" dental procedures b/c, once it over, chances are you will (as I have) experience a miraculous dearth of residual pain and unpleasantness. I can see why one would be intimidated by its length. Mine took about an hour, I think, during which any number of drills, abrasives & needly objects were jammed into my mouth. But I didn't mind so much, b/c I got the gas, and that makes all the difference. I even dozed off for a little while.

About the worst thing that happened to me as a result of my root canal was that the heaps of local anesthesia used during the process left me talking like a stroke victim for much of the day. Also, I made myself into a damn fool while attempting to eat a gyro.

I don't have a crown yet, though, & until I get one I have a sanded-down, smooth strip on the top of my molar area which seems totally foreign to my tongue, but I'll probably get used to it.

Also noteworthy: Despite not having been to see a dentist since September, 2000, X-rays & dental professionals have revealed that, other than the offending molar, I have accumulated no additional cavities or noteworthy decay/bacteria accumulation. I guess I must be an awesome brusher of teeth!

I realize the absurd length of this post while ensure that very few of you actually read it, but fuck it, I felt like writing all about my goddam tooth adventure! Plus, ILX was down during the bulk of the early drama, so a lot of this would have been otherwise serialized.

Good tooth luck, ILX!

Glad to hear you're doing better and that the dental treatment wasn't so bad or ridiculously expensive. This gives me hope as I anticipate my own visit to the dentist early next week.

ach mien gott

spent my birthday laid up in a vicodin haze. started on antibiotics and have an appointment to get this shit checked out tomorrow. but man, ain't it just the worst.

you guys

ugh

sorry about the pain. i have a cavity to fill early next month; i hate going to the dentist. i have this knee-jerk instinct to fight-back when someone is working in my mouth; it's bad for me, it's bad for the dentist. that's why i rely on NO2 gas at the dentist's office. i had a root canal once, and after the NO2, it was totally okay -- it took away all the resistance. it's usually about a $50.00 surcharge. worth every penny.

gah, that sounds like an infomercial. good luck tomorrow.

thx daniel -- in the waiting room now. the tooth itself is feeling quite a bit better but feeling some painful swelling & soreness in the glands around the jaw & neck. antibiotics may be working. hopefully the dentist will not recommend a root canal.

got a teeth cleaning yesterday, received a clean bill of health. apparently the tiny cavity from last year hasn't grown in size at all. I credit all of this obviously to my continued use of the Philips Sonicare FlexCare Rechargeable Sonic Toothbrush now available for a retail price of $144.99 from a fine retailer near you.

You forgot the amaz0n.c0m link that pays you a kickback...

I think I understand your assertion snoball and I resent that you made it. I am recommending the Philips Sonicare FlexCare Rechargeable Sonic Toothbrush purely because of the good it has brought to my dental life. If I didn't think the Philips Sonicare FlexCare Rechargeable Sonic Toothbrush was a good value and worth every penny of its price, I would not be recommending the Philips Sonicare FlexCare Rechargeable Sonic Toothbrush on this website.

Oh I see. Thank you for clarifying that Senator. Do you have completed guesspapers Physics XII?

ugh gl elmo, to answer your question yes this shit is the worst. i must book into the dentist for a checkup, promise to do so every time this thread comes up.

Elmo, that's just the infection inflaming the nerves that radiate up and down from the jaw. Antibiotics will kill it eventually. Good luck, kid!

ok -- apparently the diagnosis is a recurring infection at the site of a previous root canal (from 2 years ago!).

my options are have the root canal redone (ugh, plus a 50% chance of recurrence), oral surgery to remove the root tips and any cyst or granuloma at the site (double ugh, 40% chance of recurrence), or good ol' fashioned extraction (quickest, least expensive option, 0% chance of recurrence).

extraction will mean that i will require an implant to keep the integrity of the bite but so be it -- not taking any chance of going through this again.

extraction's always painted as the worst possible option but tbh fuckit by the time i get to 50 i'm assuming falsies will be k-sweet to install and maintain.

extraction is certainly the worst least lucrative option, surely

Those implants are $$$, though! My insurance didn't cover them 5-6 years ago but I think they do now. Worth a shot, I had a couple of extractions myself.

i had a couple of extractions a few years back after taking a shot.

invest in a good blender imo

got john jameson and sons to do that for me iirc

true enough laurel -- but seeing as i'm already missing 4 adult teeth (not lost, just never grew in) i have a few implants in my future anyway. what's one more?

i think that if i can prove the necessity of an implant (to keep my bite intact and prevent future jaw problems) there's a chance that my health insurance may help with it. it's a second molar so there would be no need for a graft or anything.