I woke up this morning with pain and swelling on one side of my mouth. I called the dentist immediately, but they are telling me the earliest I can get in is tomorrow morning. At this point, the only thing I can do is keep popping over-the-counter pain meds and hope that it helps. I will be the first to admit that I usually have a pretty high tolerance for pain, but this is really causing me a lot of discomfort and I feel like it should be considered a dental emergency. I guess my dentist doesn’t agree since they won’t make any effort to get me in sooner. Should I wait until tomorrow or should I call around and see if I can be seen somewhere else? — Ann Marie
Ann Marie,
This sounds like a dental emergency. It’s likely that you have an infection and the bad news is that it will continue to get worse the longer treatment is delayed and it could quickly become a very serious situation.
Maybe your dental office misunderstood you. Call again, and be very specific describing the symptoms you are experiencing and tell that that you need to be seen today and if they can’t make it happen, then you’ll have to see someone else. Hopefully they will agree to work you in or otherwise they will need to clearly explain why they don’t view it as an emergency. If the latter is the case, they will have to understand why you need to seek treatment elsewhere.
If you have to go somewhere else, call a local emergency dentist first. They tend to keep their schedules more flexible to deal with situations like yours. As a last resort, your medical doctor could buy you some time by prescribing antibiotics. Even if that makes you start feeling better, you’ll still want to see your dentist to determine the cause of the infection and get it treated so that it doesn’t come back.
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