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Thursday 12 May 2016

Not a good day

I was going to go out caching today, but I had no sleep last night because of a bad tooth. Today, I phoned up the dentist, and got an appointment immediately. So I trundled down there, she had a look, and it's a previous root canal filling, that needs something done.

My choices were, A) an extraction (I'd rather hang on to my teeth please) or B) a visit to the endodontist, which will have to be a private appointment, and will cost maybe £1000. So I got a prescription for an antibiotic, to clear up the infection. I did tell her I was on Warfarin, but she prescribed an antibiotic that I thought might not be good with Warfarin. She looked it up in her big book of drugs, and sure enough, metronidazole affects Warfarin. I'm a bit surprised that she didn't already know this; a lot of people visiting the dentist must be on Warfarin, and metronidazole is the usual prescription. Last time I had it, I bled more than I'd expect, so it must increase the effect of Warfarin.

So she gave me erythromycin, which also interacts with warfarin, but I suppose less so.
And she referred me to the endodontist. And as a bonus, just before I left, she noticed that another tooth looked like it had an infection. So, something to look forward to.

The second thing that happened today, was just before I left for the dentist - we had a total power cut. However, all my computers are on UPSes, and when the power came back after 15 minutes out, everyting was fine, except one UPS cut out, but that's behind an unimportant computer, and I'll replace it.

The third thing, was that ladysolly visited the doctor because her knee had swollen a bit. It was diagnosed as housemaid's knee, which you'll remember was the only malady that Jerome K Jerome didn't suffer from. The main treatment is, stop kneeling.

2 comments:

  1. root canal work is covered in the NHS dental payment bands (Band 2), seek a second opinion? Or go back and see your normal dentist, who has looked after you so well?
    http://www.nhs.uk/chq/Pages/1781.aspx?CategoryID=74

    Commiserations for the pain, I know from experience how bad it can be. If you can tolerate Ibuprofen alongside your other meds, that can be used in conjunction with Paracetamol, until the bug-killers work.

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  2. I already had root canal on that. The thing is, if you need a second root canal on the same tooth, that apparently changes things.

    I suspect that my old dentist would have dived in and done it, but he's in the middle of retiring, so I got a dentist who's only been denting for three years.

    The endodontist is a kind of super-dentist, who can do more magic than an ordinary dentist. And I'm willing to pay if the tooth can be saved.

    I used paracetamol to help me got some sleep; I don't tend to use painkillers, but if the pain is stopping me sleeping, that's going to make me worse.

    The pain wasn't as bad as a few years ago when I had an abcess under the tooth. Never mind about not sleeping, it was agony just sitting still in an armchair. The dentist then told me that this was the worst pain I'd ever feel. And in about one minute with a drill, she relieved the pressure and I felt MUCH better immediately.

    The antibiotic is doing it's magic now, and the pain has gone. But I'll still need the root canal work :-(

    Fortunately, it's a tooth fairly near the front, so my gag reflex shouldn't be too much of a problem. I took a tip from a sword swallower on this, and now when I brush my teeth, I try to get the toothbrush to trigger the reflex, because that means it'll trigger less when other foreign objects are inserted, like drills and things.

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