I've actually been going through this myself this week
suddenly and without any previous hint of a problem i had the worst pain in my life emmiting from my mouth, not having any painkillers on hand i could do nothing but slap myself until it was numb, cue a night crying and not getting any sleep, the next day was sunday and no dentists were working, not even the sodding emergency ones. went to the emergency dr instead who guessed it Might be a abscess and gave me antibiotics, took 3 days to actually see a dentist (even the emergency ones which wouldn't see me 2 dyas in a row because they were too busy. the rest of the time i was popping pain killer after pain killer and there where hardly even working (about 2 hours to kick in and about 1 hour of pain relief).

the final insult was finally seeing a dentist after 4 days of agony they ask where the pain is and i say somewhere on the back right hand side, not sure exaclty which tooth, so he then starts hitting all the teeth with a little hammer quite hard until i screem in pain as he hits the bad one. then i get given an appointment for next month sometime, no urgency or anything not like im in the worst pain of my life!
(That Random Guy, Thu 5 Aug 2010, 15:06, 1 reply)

The pain..
is usually caused by your gum stretching to accommodate your newly acquired collection of gunge inside the abcess.

When it stops hurting - that's the time to lance the fucker*

*I am not a certified dentist, so do so at your own risk - and rinse with salty water immediately afterwards.

Tastes terrible, but you'll have no more pain.
(danniekavanagh did nothing constructive on, Thu 5 Aug 2010, 16:40, closed)