Hi
i had severe tooth pain sunday/monday and tuesday this week,i had the tooth pulled out at 10am wednesday morning which was a wonderful relief. The tooth was a molar at the bottom right of my mouth, i got home and the numbness started to wear off,there was a lot of soreness which i expected,the dentist told me it was a very bad tooth. I am a smoker but havent had a cigeratte in 4 days and have no desire to any time soon,it is 3am and im up with severe pain again unable to sleep at all and totally depending on the vicodin that i was given,i was also given anti-biotics (taken 2 so far) they are amoxicillin 500mg. Its been many years since i had a molar removed and just dont remember it been this painful after the tooth has gone,i guess i might be wrong!!! Is this normal for a molar and does anybody know how long to tolerate this pain for before i need to return to my dentist to see if there is a problem and also does anybody know whats best for pain,i have the vicodin which kills about 95% of the pain.

thank you
lee.

Hi leenewton,

First, please refrain from smoking as long as you possibly can. What better time to quit!!

Secondly, continue on the antibiotics as prescribed. You might consider supplementing with a probiotic like Culturelle to avoid intestinal complications from the antibiotic.

Thirdly, it is not unusal for the area to be painful for the first few days. If by tomorrow (friday), the area is still quite painful, then call the oral surgeon and let him evaluate it for a dry socket. Smokers are more likely to get a dry socket than non smokers especially if you smoked up until you had the tooth extracted.

And last but not least....... rinse several times a day with warm salt water for the next 3 weeks or so. This helps to keep the surgical site clean and aids in the healing process.

Please keep in touch and let us know how you are doing.

Bryanna

Thank you bryanna for your information!!! well strangely enough i am sat here now at my computer waiting for a vicodin to start helping me out and its 3.15am again...now dont get me wrong all day today i noticed a big difference in pain,getting easier i mean,ive eased off the vicodin a lot during today but im now just getting that dull pain again so i took a pain killer at around 2.30am so i get some sleep.
well like i said before in my first post i have no desire at all to smoke!!! how foolish that would be right now!! so no worries there and yes ive gone 1 week with out a cigarette so might be a good time to quit...we will see.
Im guessing the nights are worse so i might go until monday then if im still in pain its definately a trip back to the dentists.

Thanks again and i will keep you posted,hopefully my next post will be good news!!.

lee.

I am much better today(saturday) thank you for your advice.
lee

I quit smoking about 4 years after I quit drinking and I'm tellin' ya, I think quitting smoking was harder for me. The 5 pounds of fudge I found in the freezer helped, though. LOL Anyway, I was a 2+ pack a day smoker for years and years. The first 4 days are the hardest, though, and if you've gotten past that, you've got it whipped. Good luck keeping on. The first few days the craving is physical but after that it's more psychological and knowing that helped me a lot in resisting the urge to start again.

One tip I can give you is to stay away from other people's smoke. If you whiff their smoke, it's just like smoking again yourself and keeps your addiction alive or reawakens it. Smelling other people's smoke is like an alcoholic trying to drink just a little bit. It doesn't work and just reawakens the craving.

It sounds like you might have a dry socket. I hope it will get better for you soon. It will go away in time even if it's a dry socket, but there's no worse pain than a dry socket, I don't think. For me, it was worse than the toothache and the pain medication didn't even touch it. It was awful! I hope you'll be feeling much better by the time you read this.

Hi leenewton1,

Glad to hear that you are feeling better. Hopefully you are motivated to stop smoking and never have to worry about it again!

Take care,
Bryanna ~'.'~