What to do if the tooth hurts: surviving during the crisis
Your tooth hurts, but you don’t know what to do and where to run? Due to the current situation of the spread of the virus, many dental clinics have stopped accepting patients and postpone the planned manipulations. But what should you do if your toothaches badly, and it seems that the visit to the doctor can’t be postponed anymore?
Determine the type of toothache
Now only patients with an acute toothache can get the dentist’s appointment. Therefore, in most cases, they will simply refuse to accept you and tell you to endure until the end of quarantine.
But in order to know for sure whether your toothache belongs to the category of acute, you need to determine several factors of its appearance.
- Your tooth has become sensitive and responds to sweet/cold, etc. This phenomenon can be caused by caries. If the irritant is removed, and the pain disappears, then this is not an acute toothache. In this case, the dentist will not be able to see you. Therefore, the only thing that can help you is the exclusion of all the factors that cause you pain, or a pill for toothache.
- If your tooth hurts terribly in the evening or at night, and this pain does not allow you to sleep, then most likely we are already dealing with inflammation of the nerve. Also, with inflammation of the nerve, pain on hot/cold foods may occur. And here there will already be 2 development paths:
- Visit your dentist, so that he prescribes pain medication and antibiotics. This can temporarily alleviate the situation and relieve pain in the tooth, transferring it from an acute to a chronic state. And while the nerve will rot, the patient will have about another 2-4 weeks to prevent inflammation in the bone.
- Extract a tooth. No matter how sad it is, you will either have to endure a toothache while taking a pill for a toothache, or you must immediately have it pulled out and not be tormented. During the quarantine period, no treatment/drilling or cauterization can be carried out, so the choice is small.
- Your cheek begins to swell, the temperature rises, chills appear and the toothache becomes unbearable? These are signs that the nerve has already rotted and the inflammation has passed to the bone. In this case, there is only one way out — tooth extraction.
- A wisdom tooth hurts. In this case, you need to make an appointment with the dentist, where your tooth will be quickly removed.
What if your problem is as described above?
At the moment, a number of rules have been introduced to minimize contact between people and prevent the spread of COVID-19. First, before undertaking anything, the patient should evaluate his state of health, and understand that the doctor may also be a potential carrier.
Therefore, the only right first step during quarantine will be to seek advice by phone or online. The doctor will be able to assess the situation and give advice on what to do, and also, if necessary, make an appointment.
Upd. As of 04.01.2021, the Cabinet of Ministers of Latvia has not taken any measures that significantly limit the operation of dental offices and clinics. The work is carried out in the established routine mode.
What pills to take to get rid of toothache
The simplest and most popular pain reliever that will help relieve toothache is Ibumetin. You can also take Paracetamol to relieve toothache. If an anesthetic is needed without a doctor’s prescription, Solpadeine® Effervescent Tablets are the best choice. But in acute cases, it will be necessary to take antibiotics, which are dispensed by prescription.
In the modern digital age, it has become possible to dispense prescriptions remotely, so you can call the doctor and he will send you an electronic prescription without visiting a dental office.
Many actions and manipulations, of course, remain at the discretion of the doctor. Both in determining the degree of situation/pain and in the decision to provide assistance or not due to the high susceptibility to infection of staff.
P.S. In this situation, the measures taken to protect personnel require additional funds and finances, and the cost of a doctor’s appointment may be higher than usual. You can get acquainted with the prices here.
Be healthy and take care!