The over two month saga of my infected wisdom tooth continues but I hope is nearly resolved. To précis: no problems with my teeth for ten years. Just before Christmas toothache, nothing had shown on x-ray, but underneath filling the pulp was necrotic - crack in tooth had let in bacteria. Not given antibiotic prophylaxis. Post filling regular course of amoxicillin. Told to see 'better' dentist to get root canal treatment done. Saw better dentist one week later who did first stage of root canal treatment. No antibiotic prophylaxis (but I had just finished that course of amoxicillin). Immediately after local anaesthetic worse off started experiencing severe pain in jaw area which worsened over the following week. Got heart palpitations at one point and as they continued all night long called NHS 111 as it was a Saturday and no dentist or doctor available. Told to go to A&E (ER). Doc there said palpitations due to pain and infection, prescribed metronidazole (Flagyl) antibiotic. Told me my heart murmur was "stonking" (Brit expression for extremely loud) but he thought that normal considering I'd had AVR a year ago. Pain worsening over the next week. Went back to dentist who did lots of tests, said I had temporomandibular joint dysfunction which you can get from extensive dental treatment. Prescribed diazepam in muscle relaxant dose which worked, and continues to work, on the whole. He decided to postpone the second stage of root canal treatment until my jaw was better.
Saw oral maxillofacial surgeon who confirmed temporomandibular joint problem, did x-ray which showed some infection at one of the wisdom tooth's root tips. Prescribed co-amoxiclav (Augmentum).
Pain got worse. Saw GP who prescribed oromorph (liquid morphine) as none of the codeine preparations (ie dihydrocodeine, co-codamol) work for me. Have discovered that around 7% of people lack an enzyme needed to process codeine meds and that explains why I had so many problems post AVR with pain ! Tramadol, which was one I was also given post AVR, didn't work either and you need that same enzyme as you do for codeine. All they did in hospital was give me more and more tramadol and dihydrocodeine which simply caused very bad side effects and no pain relief. Anyway, the GP also prescribed another course of co-amoxiclav too and the oromorph helped with the pain...for a while.
Pain got worse so back to maxillofacial surgeon who did another x-ray which showed infection still there so he decided I should have the tooth extracted. Tooth extracted last Friday in hospital. Saturday bad pain which was more severe than I thought it should be post extraction, even though wisdom teeth can hurt tons post extraction especially when a person is post middle age and the tooth set in more firmly. Sunday pain excruciating, throbbing all left half of jaw and up side of face to ear and temple. Contacted the surgeon who saw me yesterday. I have b****** dry socket !!! The blood clot cannot have formed properly leaving the nerve and bone exposed in the socket. The surgeon has given me a syringe with which to irrigate/clean the socket with salt water solution several times a day. I believe it takes a couple of weeks for dry socket to heal - I just hope I don't get an infection !
Going back to the "stonking" murmur - I contacted Edwards Lifesciences and asked them to comment about the murmur being so very loud. I thought they would just tell me to see my cardiologist but one of their doctors telephoned me ! Spoke to me for about twenty minutes ! I am most impressed with their customer care. The doc said the murmur shouldn't be that loud but that I should see my cardiologist and have echocardiogram to check on it. I'm doing that this coming Friday. I will ask for print out of echo results and tell them about the murmur and dental infection. I see the cardiologist straight after the echo.
Saw oral maxillofacial surgeon who confirmed temporomandibular joint problem, did x-ray which showed some infection at one of the wisdom tooth's root tips. Prescribed co-amoxiclav (Augmentum).
Pain got worse. Saw GP who prescribed oromorph (liquid morphine) as none of the codeine preparations (ie dihydrocodeine, co-codamol) work for me. Have discovered that around 7% of people lack an enzyme needed to process codeine meds and that explains why I had so many problems post AVR with pain ! Tramadol, which was one I was also given post AVR, didn't work either and you need that same enzyme as you do for codeine. All they did in hospital was give me more and more tramadol and dihydrocodeine which simply caused very bad side effects and no pain relief. Anyway, the GP also prescribed another course of co-amoxiclav too and the oromorph helped with the pain...for a while.
Pain got worse so back to maxillofacial surgeon who did another x-ray which showed infection still there so he decided I should have the tooth extracted. Tooth extracted last Friday in hospital. Saturday bad pain which was more severe than I thought it should be post extraction, even though wisdom teeth can hurt tons post extraction especially when a person is post middle age and the tooth set in more firmly. Sunday pain excruciating, throbbing all left half of jaw and up side of face to ear and temple. Contacted the surgeon who saw me yesterday. I have b****** dry socket !!! The blood clot cannot have formed properly leaving the nerve and bone exposed in the socket. The surgeon has given me a syringe with which to irrigate/clean the socket with salt water solution several times a day. I believe it takes a couple of weeks for dry socket to heal - I just hope I don't get an infection !
Going back to the "stonking" murmur - I contacted Edwards Lifesciences and asked them to comment about the murmur being so very loud. I thought they would just tell me to see my cardiologist but one of their doctors telephoned me ! Spoke to me for about twenty minutes ! I am most impressed with their customer care. The doc said the murmur shouldn't be that loud but that I should see my cardiologist and have echocardiogram to check on it. I'm doing that this coming Friday. I will ask for print out of echo results and tell them about the murmur and dental infection. I see the cardiologist straight after the echo.
