Erin, you might get better responses in the dental forum:

http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/forum89.html

YES! dental abcesses can be VERY painful. The swelling from the trapped material, and the pushing on the dental nerves, can make it feel like your jaw bone is broken. They can call in some pain pills for you. I hope you feel better.

yes very painful, takes a few days with the antibiotics to kick the pain ... and I know ibuprophen just does not cut the pain much... take care and sorry, I had this last week with a wisdom tooth that needs to be pulled...owww hugsssss

I had my wisdome teeth taken out when I was 22 or 24 (cant remember) Mine werent causing me any pain yet, but they had to go in after them because they were coming in sideways and upside down.

I dont ever want to do that again to my mouth. They had me totally stoned on Versed. I dont remember much of what happened, except that the nurse/dental tech was in too big of a hurry to get me out of the office after they were done (she was pushing me in a wheelchair)...and she was slow to respond when I told her to slow down and stop. Good thing I didnt have to pay for her shoes. yuck!

Yes, an abcessed tooth can be very painful. It's not something you want to fool around with either. It can raise havoc with your whole system/body.

When I had one the dentist put me on antibiotics for I think ten days. Then I could have the tooth (molar) removed by an oral surgeon. There was no way it could have a root canal as there is too much bacteria and such in it even if it is cleaned out well.

Go to the dental forum and there is help there.

Erin, I hope you get some relief soon. Antibiotics are great for this. I've had lots of painful dental stuff happen since my first round of Solu-Medrol (there's a connection there somewhere, according to neuro & dentist). Narcotic pain meds didn't touch the abcessed tooth pain. I had terrible headaches and jaw pains.

I recently had my first root canal, and it honestly wasn't that bad. It was much easier than I thought! I don't know if this is dental protocol, but my dentist numbed the area with some clove-scented stuff before injecting the novacaine. The pain was gone pretty quickly when the root canal was done. It was definitely worth it, compared to all the pain I was in beforehand.

Nothing is worse than dental pain to me. I hope you are better soon!

Really? Do you know more about the purported connection??

Erin, hope you feel better soon!

This was more of a vent last night than a serious question.

I can feel the antibiotics working now. Side of my mouth doesnt feel as huge as it did yesterday, and some of the pain is feeling better.

My jaw did feel (still feels like) it was broken. Like someone had been smacking me around a bunch the past few days.

I'm trying to not take too much pain medication because I want to keep my kidneys and I dont want an ulcer. At least the dentist told me that two Aleve's are equal to one of the prescription pain meds. I found a box of store brand Aleve at Walgreens and it was on clearance for $1.50!

I'm just irritated. I thought getting that dental work done would be the end of dental issues for awhile. Now I'm probably getting my first root canal. argh!