HELP PLEASE I am in SOOOOOO MUCH PAIN right now I don't know what to do!!!

[ExtremeFear]

Yesterday morning I 100% fine. My annual dental checkup was only last month, including full X-rays and everything was normal except a filling needed to be replaced and I am awaiting for that appointment to be done under combo nitrous oxide and halcion (triazolam) oral sedation. Yesterday I bit down and immediate excruciating pain in my front upper tooth (not the tooth that needs the filling replaced!). Now I had also been having a sinus infection on the same side I was sure it was related. I went to the dental clinic anyway to see what they said.

Tooth looks 100% normal on X-ray and exam, and reacts to cold normally but tapping is tender. I can't bite down on it at all. They send me immediately to endo to be checked off base (I am military). I explain before I go that I require sedation for ay work, in case they went to something right away. As a precaution I had brought my halcion with me.... the scrip I had for my upcoming filling..... just in case this civilian endo tried to force me to do emergency treatment with no sedation... which is EXACTLY what happened!!!!!!

The endo guy was all nice and everything - said somehow probably trauma caused an abcess!!!!! Like I got hit in my face or something... maybe awhile back and didn't realize I caused any damage. OUCH!!! And that he could treat right away. Then I asked about sedation.... and it went downhill!!!!!

I got the whole "none" "you don't need it" "It's literally a 10 min thing and the worst is the needle and then you'll be ok" etc. I was shaking by that time... LUCKILY I had thought ahead of time and had brought the prescription Halcion that was supposed to be for my filling appointment (so I will need to get another scrip for that now) I think I surprised him when I hauled it out. He said you CAN do it without you just won't let yourself. I told him its not that won't allow myself, it's that my built in protectiveness won't allow me to experience the pain of the needles and the procedure!!!

I told the endo guy if he could wait 1 hour for this to take effect I'll wait around, take the oral sedation and let him work... and as long as he did not use EPI (I can't for a heart arrhythmia reason - I have a dysautonomia that my body overreacts to normal amounts of adrenaline and further the med I take for it, lists EPI as a caution because it can cause dangerous spike in Blood Pressure) So I *think* he avoided epi... I hope. Since he said it would only take 10 mins....

Anyway I took the halcyon and waited. I took BOTH pills because the original plan was 1 halcion in addition to nitrous oxide and the second pill was just in case I was not deep enough. It started to take effect after about 25 mins and they took me in. Really the only thing I remember from the appointment past that was the needles.... he salbbed some red stuff on my gum and then jammed the needles in right away before letting the red stuff work / before letting the halcyon totally sedate me.

They HURT IMMENSLY!!!!!!!!! I can't stress enough how badly the injections hurt me!!! I was trying to tell him to stop and he wouldn't. It felt like he was trying to drive ice picks up into my nasal cavity from my gums!!!! And injecting acid through it!!!! There were like 4 shots, the last of which felt like right beside the tooth like down beside the tooth and gum and that one hurt worst for intensity but was actually not as bad as the others for causing post op soreness I guess. I don't remember the actual procedure I think I fell asleep after that once the oral sedation kicked rest of the way in. (so much for the oral sed making the needles easier - they didn't wait long enough)

So I VAGUELY remember through my triazolam induced haze afterward (I don't remember the appointment AT ALL after the needles I think I fell asleep which is the beauty of sedation but I wish they had waited to do the needles until I was in that state fully - I hate having the memory of the pain from the needles because now I can't 'forget' that pain)

Anyway I don't know what exactly he did at the appointment... there feels like a small temporary filling in the back of my front tooth. The tooth is still excruciatingly painful to touch, bite etc. I had someone drive me home, and when I woke up 6 hours later, found a scrip on my table for antibiotics so I went and filled that and started taking them. Amoxicillin 500mg every 6 hrs. No scrip for anything for pain!!!!!!! And since I am assuming no epi was used the numbness wore off pretty quickly and since then I have several pain issues now in addition to the tooth itself:

1. The tooth is still hugely painful! We're talking 8-9/10
2. can't bite on the tooth at all or tap on it
3. In addition to the tooth pain I now also have severe pain below my nose!!! Like right at the base of my nostril if I push there it's VERY VERY tender!!! This was not there earlier!!! IT's like my gums above that tooth up to my nose are now almost hurting as bad as the tooth itself! (7-8/10 on pain scale) I am 99.9999999999% sure this is from the neeldes!!!! Did he injure me somehow with them?? From how much I remember they hurt me when he injected, I think he may have hastily injected not thinking about comfort or anything and may have ripped my tissues or something!? Is this possible? I can't even blow my nose now! Any pressure at all to the base of my nostril and upper lip hurt just as bad as the infected tooth did!!!!

I am so much in pain I don't know what to do.... and surprised they did not give me something stronger than OTC pain meds. I only found a scrip for amoxicillin. When I went to fill it, I ended up getting tylenol 1.

In Canada tylenol #1 (has 8mg codeine / 300 mg acetaminophen) are available OTC so I picked some up. Problem is codeine makes me sick to my stomach. So I also picked up gravol. I don't know what the safe dose of T1 is, so I took 4 of them. I know you can take 2 x 500 mg of extra strength tylenol (as written on the bottle) so I took 4 T1 which gives me 1200 mg acetaminophen and 32 mg of codeine (just a tiny more than a tylenol #3 would have) and it's starting to take the edge off.

It's just that this endo was supposed to HELP ME not cause MORE pain! What else can I do to help the needle spot pain? Can I put voltaren emulgel on my upper lip (so close to mucous membranes)? Will it help??? What about just inside my nose / just under my nostril where the worst of the soreness is??? This really is bothering me much worse than the actual tooth!

And since I d not think I was in there very long today (and I can't remember much after the needle... I don't even remember my coworker driving me home actually) And I vaguely remember them saying to call then back... did they only do partial root canal??? Like did they remove the pulp and then just put a temp filling over the hole? If I have to go back for more work, I will need to go to the military base first and get another prescription for halcyon again. This endo was (who seemed nice at first) was very cold and uncaring once I explained I need sedation. He treated me like I was just being childish or something. And if I had not already had the scrip with me for halcyon I would have had to endure the entire weekend with no treatment started at all (I would not have let him work), and then wait until next week so I could have gotten a prescription for oral sedation. And I KNOW this guy does IV sedation because there was an IV bag hanging in the SAME ROOM!!!!! Why would he be so cold and unwilling to do sedation???

Anyway I just need help to get me though the pain.... the needle spot pain is actually worse than the tooth right now... I can't move my upper lip at all, I can't rub my nose or blow my nose and I have to talk holding my lip completely still which is extremely difficult and even then it's aching.

Please someone help! How do I get rid of needle pain??? Can I go to the ER??
I am still horrified that you can get an abcess in a tooth that has no cavity, no filling, and no trauma (that you can remember!!!!!) And I brush and floss RELIGIOUSLY!!!!!!!!!! Nightmare for a dental phobe!!!!!!!

 

[ExtremeFear]

Re: HELP PLEASE I am in SOOOOOO MUCH PAIN right now I don't know what to do!!!

OKay so I went to the hospital emergency room at 3 am.

Percocet (oxycodone) did nothing, so they give me Dilaudid (hydromorphone) also did nothing... except make my stomach upset. I got hold of the on call dental person at the base and they called the endo and he said it's normal.

pain THIS intense is normal? and they can't do anything for it????????

I am experiencing pain from my front tooth all the way to my back tooth on the right side, pain radiating into my sinus cavity, pain in my nose. Tenderness in my upper lip and around my nose from the stupid injections I can't even make any facial expressions without pain. The bone pain from the infection is driving me batty. On a scale on 1-10 it's 20!!!!! I currently have dilaudid and 800 mg of ibuprofen in me and I slathered 20% benzocaine around the tooth and the gums and roof of my mouth and pain is still very intense.

I am about to have someone hit me over the head with a frying pan to knock me out so I can get some relief!
Seriously.... does dental work have to hurt this much!!!?
I mean when I say I was fine yesterday morning! Even the tooth I went to inquire about was tended but not like this!

I read somewhere that the bleach they use for root canals can sometimes get into the surrounding tissues and cause severe pain / damage. I am starting to wonder if something like that happened. I was in LESS pain with an untreated abcess than whatever this guy did to me!

Any suggestions for other things I can do for pain relief please share!
At this point fear is the least of my worries.... the pain is so terrible I can't function and I have an event to go to this evening! I am praying to Waheguru that he will get me through it.

 

[ExtremeFear]

Re: HELP PLEASE I am in SOOOOOO MUCH PAIN right now I don't know what to do!!!

Ok so it's been over 48 hours and I still can't eat anything at all. Any movement of my upper lip to even talk etc pulls on the needle spots and they still hurt immensely. I can't blow my nose, smile, talk, eat etc because of post op needle pain. I have been slathering voltaren emulgel on my upper lip in hopes that it would help (basically it's diclofenac which is an anti-inflammatory in a gel form) It's not working.

In addition to that, I am taking 800 mg ibuprofen, 900 mg acetaminophen (paracetamol) and 24mg codeine every 6 hours, and its not even touching the pain in my jaw. The pain radiates from the tooth worked on (right front top) and radiates all the way to the back tooth on the right side, up into my sinus, and my right nostril. It's also even radiating to my lower jaw in the front!!! The pain is still 9/10 with short bouts in between where it dulls down to about 7/10. Any attempts to eat, talk, move my jaw, etc at all cause it to immediately go back to 9/10 and throb intensely for about 30 mins after then it goes back to 7/10. As long as I don't physically move my jaw / lip, etc AT ALL, it stays around 7/10. However, its virtually impossible to keep from moving at all! It seems like the harder I try to not bump, hit that tooth, the more I do! Its like my jaw involuntarily just closes sometimes and my bottom tooth hits the one worked on! Like bad karma!

SO between the infection pain, and the post op pain from the root canal, and then the post op injection pain, I am in terrible shape! I have not eaten since Thursday and its now Sunday night. My stomach is being ripped apart from the ibuprofen, and I feel like I am going throw up, not that theres anything there to throw up.

Please someone help me with ideas to reduce pain!!!! If I could somehow reuse the pain from the needles I could try to get food into the left side so I could at least have something in my stomach but any pulling on my lip is excruciating! There's even a visible bruise below my nose from the needles!

 

[ExtremeFear]

Re: HELP PLEASE I am in SOOOOOO MUCH PAIN right now I don't know what to do!!!

Okay I am on day 3 and still in extreme pain. Right from the front tooth to the back tooth, radiating up to my sinus and nasal passage on the right side. I am beginning to think it's a nerve injury on the main nerve that supplies the branches off to the individual teeth. Reason is, that even strong pain killers would not work on the pain from the emergency room, and just the intenseness of the pain feels like nerve pain to me. Also, I still can't move my upper lip properly. I thought it had been just because it hurt to move it, so I had kept it still all weekend, but I tried and it physically won't move, like one side of my upper lip is paralyzed now. I do have feeling if touch it but it hurts if I touch it like the skin is super sensitive.

I am going back today to the base dental clinic to see what they can do. If its nerve pain I am feeling, there are drugs (non narcotic) that are good for nerve pain (I think they are actually antidepressants that also work on nerve pain) and I want to try one of them to see if it gives me relief.