Ongoing pain after wisdom tooth extraction

[Kittykebab]

Hello all,

Apologies for long winded post!

Just wondering if anyone else had their wisdom teeth removed as an adult and suffered with ongoing pain after?

Had 3 wisdom teeth taken out 2 weeks ago under general anesthetic in hospital. After surgery, the consultant told me that one of the lower ones had double the amount of root /nerves as normal and they had to cut away some bone and break it into pieces to get it out, then stitch me back up and to expect bad pain and swelling, but that it should start to get better by about 72 hours later. Pain was so bad on the weekend that I would literally just rock and cry whilst dosing up on paracetamol and ibuprofen. But after 72 hours the swelling had gone down a bit and the bruising came up so I was hopeful it was healing even though I was still in constant pain 24/7 (but not enough to bring me to tears!) and pain relief just didn't touch it. The other two wisdom teeth (or what were) have caused me no pain at all.

Due to continued pain I went to see my dentist to rule out dry socket or any sort of infection. They said it was healing well and no infection, just keep salt water 'swilling'. Went to GP who prescribed codeine and naprofen (which both have their own negative side effects on me) and suggested i adjust doses to suit pain level and signed me off work for a week. To be honest this pain relief hasn't once stopped the pain, occasionally it might just take the edge off, or at least make me drowsy enough to sleep for a few hours at night and keep me sane.

So now 2 weeks on from surgery and the pain hasn't reduced at all (except after the initial few days when the swelling went down). Still constant, spread from ear to jaw to teeth/gum, localised on the side of my face that the problem tooth was removed from.

If its a case of 'just deal with it', healing takes longer the older you are, etc. I guess I'm just hoping someone has experience of this and how long it took them to recover roughly. I don't want to just keep moaning and being off work if there's anything else I can do, or that might be the problem. My face isn't numb at all, which seems to be an issue with nerve damage, dentist has said no infection so it's not dry socket. I can still semi-function, but when I take codeine I get drowsy and feel dizzy and also due to pain I'm just not sleeping more than a couple of hours a night, if that, so going to work isn't a great option, especially when I have to drive there. But I do hate having time off work.

Anyone had any similar problems?

Thanks in advance.

 

[MattKW]

How serious is the pain now? Like, what would be a record of your painkillers intake over the course of 24 hours?

 

[Kittykebab]

Hi,

Pain is difficult to describe, but I guess nearest I can describe is a constant dull throbbing ache, with the feeling like someone also has a knife to the gum and is poking it with every throb. This radiates across my jaw up to inside my ear. Scale of 1 to 10, probably a 7, but enough to stop sleep.

Current painkillers on average are paracetamol x2 and codeine 15mg x2 every 4 hours (up to max suggested amount), then additional ibuprofen inbetween. I was on a heavier dose of codeine but this made me really nauseous and 'out of it', so dropped down.

 

[MattKW]

That's not good for you, but you're doing everything possible.
It may be too late, but maybe a dry socket dressing if they can get it into the wound. I prefer ZnO/eugenol mixed with Vaseline and impregnated into a large (sterile) cotton pellet packed up to the brim of the wound. You might need some LA to get it in - ask for some long-lasting stuff like bupivacaine or ropivacaine so you can have a bit of a rest too.