Toothache

Over the weekend, I was having mild problem with my gums. As the area of the swelling increases, the ache becomes more troublesome. My pain radiates to the ear, jaws and cheek and gives me a one-sided blinding headache.

Yesterday, I called my dentist, Dr. Schymik and he was at the east side office and not the north side office that I usually go to. I was told to be at the east side office by 11 am. I found the office and waited in the lobby for about 20 minutes before they called me in. They did an x-ray on the particular tooth and the girl told me it's quite inflammed. After awhile, Dr. Schymik came and looked at the x-ray and he suggested root-canal, seconded by another Doctor there. He told me he needs to refer me to an endodontic specialist. (A root canal is the commonly used term for the main canals within the dentin of the tooth. These are part of the natural cavity within a tooth that consists of the dental pulp chamber, the main canals, and sometimes more intricate anatomical branches that may connect the root canals to each other or to the root surface of the tooth. Root canals are filled with a highly vascularized, loose connective tissue, the dental pulp. This sometimes becomes infected and inflamed, generally due to caries or tooth fractures that allow microorganisms, mostly bacteria from the oral flora or their byproducts, access to the pulp chamber or the root canals; the infected tissue is removed by a surgical intervention known as endodontic therapy and commonly called a root canal).

Meanwhile, he told me he will give me some antibiotics for a week and I will have to contact the specialist as soon as the swellling goes down. I have taken the antibiotics (penicillin gv 500), every 4 hours and the pain never did go away and I decided to try ibuprofen which is not strong enough and lastly I tried tylenol which is a little bit better but still after the medication wore off, the pain is back! Woke up this morning with my face looking out of shape, thinking to myself, hmmm.. I am looking like Mrs Puff in Spongebob!