Cellulitis infection - wizzie extraction in 2 days!!

[dentalvirgin]

Hi all, I'm new to this forum but glad to have found you! I'm due to have my upper 2 wisdom teeth extracted this Friday (now Wednesday evening) but have just found out I've got a cellulitis infection in my right leg and will have to go to the GP for antibiotics tomorrow to clear it. I'm quite prone to getting infections like this as I have multiple medical conditions resulting in a compromised immune system. My main question then is: Should I put off my extraction until this other infection has cleared? It's needed because they're decaying (top right quite bad, top left only minor as yet) but neither are hurting or sensitive. I'm having them out under a local anaesthetic - would have preferred sedation or GA but too obese to meet the criteria so it has to be local (I'd pay good money if it would help as I'm quite anxious about injections generally and would rather be as unaware as possible of what's going on!)

Secondly, has anyone on here had to have such an extraction when they've had bad back pain? I have ongoing conditions and part of it is back pain, which currently is quite bad. I struggle to lie back and don't use a bed partly as a result, even lying on my side hurts too much so I sleep semi-erect in a chair with legs up on a footstool. I'm concerned about my ability to lie back in the dentists' chair for the length of the procedure as even my coccyx hurts after a few minutes. I know they have to lean you back fairly far but not completely flat and they say they have a "special chair", whatever one of those is, which they think will help, but otherwise they just say a bit of niceness from them and co-operation from me and that's that. I take painkillers but they don't work very well for this. Any thoughts welcome as I have to have a hydrocortisone injection into a muscle before they start for steroid cover and I don't want to have that only to find they can't do the work because I can't lie back enough for them to gain access.

Sorry for the long post - I have posted this elsewhere but would value a range of opinions.

Thanks,

Neana

 

[Dr. Daniel]

Hi,

If you need to take antibiotics it might be even beneficial to the extraction in case the antibiotics is relevant to oral infections. In any case, I would seek the advise of the dentist who does the extraction. Postponing the extraction in a few days should not be a clinical problem.

Some dentists, especially oral surgeons, prefer to work standing up, in this case no need to take the chair much back-worth. You can also ask to get the local anesthesia first, get out of the chair and walk a bit for a couple of minutes and than back to the chair for the extractions.
Worst case scenario: you can ask to pospone the treatment or have only one tooth extracted and later the other.

All the best

 

[dentalvirgin]

Hi, thanks for the reply. I went to the GP on the Thursday and saw one of their nurses, who again confirmed I had quite a bad cellulitis infection. She prescribed flucloxacillin 500 mg, 1 4 times a day for a week. I explained that I was due to have two wisdom teeth extracted the day after and she categorically advised postponing it. Her reasoning was that if I went ahead, the infection could spread and become systemic, and that can be quite dangerous and difficult to clear. So on the way out I left a message at the maxillofacial unit at the Hospital and now have an appointment to have it done on 25th November. Not as long a wait as I expected!

In trying to find out about the possible implications of cellulitis infections on wisdom teeth extractions, the only thing I could find was about people getting cellulitis in the jaw/throat etc. after the procedure. I suppose I'll just have to hope they give me some antibiotics to take once it's done to prevent that happening, as I get them very easily.

I'd still value opinions on the back pain side of things. Some have suggested the special chair might be one that's contoured to fit the back in better, but I have an office chair like that and actually find it sometimes less comfortable than one without contouring, so I'm not convinced.

It's interesting that they say they'll give me a hydrocortisone injection beforehand too; the guidelines from the Addison's Disease Self-Help Group suggest that for a procedure like this with local anaesthetic, doubling my oral dose would be sufficient. That extra injection only serves to raise my anxiety levels still further! I've never been good with needles, even if they let me know when they're sticking them in, I still jump! Never had either of the two injections I'll be having that day before, so no clue how painful they actually are! I'm registered blind, which doesn't help.

Personally, I still think if they'd cave and allow sedation or GA it would be a lot easier in the long-run for them and for me. I know the risks are far greater because of my weight and sleep apnoea, but I'd happily sign something to say I'm having it at my own risk and won't sue if anything happens! For me, it would mean I was almost totally unaware of what was going on, so any back pain would go unnoticed and I'd be unaware of any pain from the procedure too. For them, it would allow them to do their work without possibility of interruption if I needed to move halfway through and they could do everything they needed to without having to check if I was getting any pain from anaesthetic not doing as it should. It would probably reduce the procedure time as a result. I

f it would help, I'd go private - I could probably get it done sooner, and maybe pay to get it done under sedation/GA. I bet they'd have the same criteria though? At least if I HAD to go for a local anaesthetic, some private practices have a device called the dental wand, which delivers the anaesthetic slowly and evenly as it's computer controlled hardware. I've got a health cash plan so can claim dental costs back if it came to it up to a certain amount. That probably sounds like I'm desperate, considering going private when I get it for free on the NHS! Any thoughts on private v NHS would be welcome though. I want my first procedure to be as easy and trouble/pain free as possible for me and the person/people doing it, but I also want to get it done and out of the way ASAP too.

Anyway, I've rambled long enough - thanks for any replies, at least I've got 3 weeks to work things out now and hopefully this infection will go soon.

Cheers,

Neana