So I got my lower-right-back wisdom tooth removed last Tuesday because a week prior, I got a gum infection where it was partially ruptured. Now usually, these aren't too bad, and they go away on their own, and they usually only occur when I eat a lot of something crumbly and hard (like popcorn or nuts), but aside from that, I never got any trouble out of my wisdom tooth. Except this one time where the infection was especially painful and wasn't going away very fast. Since I'm planning on doing some travelling work for 10 months soon, I figured I better get the wisdom tooth removed.
When the procedure occurred last Tuesday, I remember that when the doctor was injecting me with numbing agents with a needle, there were a few times when it felt like someone had hit the tip of my tongue with a taser or something. My dentist said that this was most likely him accidentally hitting a nerve with a needle when sticking it under my tongue. Aside from that and the usual discomforts, it seemed to have gone well: They pulled the tooth out, put a filling in a molar that was right beside the wisdom tooth (which now feels like a plastic plate that I keep biting down on, and he put a suture on the socket to help it close and heal. He told me that the tooth was a bit "tricky", and put me on painkillers, and told me to take one-to-two of them every 4-6 hours alongside 800 mg of Ibuprofen.
The day of the surgery was OK: I had a lot of discomfort, but taking my pain medication as prescribed seemed to be adequate for keeping the pain away. Starting the day after, on Wednesday, I just began experiencing increasing pain in the gum socket, and it seemed like I had to take two painkillers and 800 mg of ibuprofen for it to even relieve some of the pain. On Friday, I was already out of pain meds, but still in a lot of pain, so I went to see them again. The dentist took a quick look at the socket and said it was "looking good". He reminded me that it had only been three days since the surgery, and that it may take awhile for not only the socket to heal, but to fully recover from the trauma of my jaw from the work itself due to the difficulty of it, is how I understood it. He then gave me another prescription for pain meds, and now a prescription for 500mg amoxicillin that is to be taken every six hours. He also gave me popsickle sticks to bite down on as a stretching exercise for my jaw, which DID help relieve a lot of pain the first few times, but now it does nothing.
I'm now on day five, I believe, and I am still in excruciating pain. It didn't help that last night, I went to stay with my mom and her fiance for one night in their RV, where I ran out of my last three pain pills, and was up most of the night due to pain but not being able to do anything for relief. My mom tried some essential oils and a warm compress, but they only worked for as long as they lasted, which wasn't long.
Now, the right side of my jaw has horrible throbbing pain, and is starting to radiate to my right ear, and I feel like there's a lot of pressure in my head but mainly on the front of my face, and I think my head is a bit hot. Sometimes, especially after rinsing out that gum socket, the right side of my tongue and underneath it feels a little numb. Every time I try to lay down, it feels like a bunch of blood is just rushing towards that socket and putting pressure on it, making it worse. Even when I manage to lessen the pain or sleep through it, I always wake up 1-2 hours later to the horrible sensation of someone just jabbing deep down into that socket and into my ear with a q-tip or a needle, and I don't know what's going on.
From what I've read on the internet, what I am experiencing could be something called "dry socket", where the socket either failed to clot, or the blood clot was dislodged. I do remember pulling a gauze off the socket area when I was trying to deaden it with ambisol, and seeing some weird dark piece of something with what looked like a drop of pus or something white on it, but at this point, I was already experiencing bad pain. After that, I decided to take a syringe I was given and to squirt Listerine directly into the socket in hopes of cleaning it out, if I already have dry socket.
So far, that Listerine rinse is the only thing that has provided any relief all day, and it only lasts for about 30 minutes. Now since my last rinse, the entire right-side of my mouth has been aching, and that soft area below my tongue feels sore. Sometimes sucking the inside of my mouth provides relief, other times, it just feels like it's making it worse.
On top of that, my middle teeth on the top row and bottom row often feel annoyed and like I need to teeth, but I am not sure if that's from the pain radiating from the socket, or if it's due to my having not worn my retainers in a week.
The only time since yesterday that ibuprofen has worked, was when I accidentally took more than four, and I felt extremely good and groggy for about 2-6 hours.
Either way, I would like some expert advice or a second opinion on this. I'm supposed to go back this upcoming Friday to get the stitch removed, but I'm not sure if I can wait until then unless I can find a natural solution to this pain that consistently works. I know the socket is most likely healing by now, but I really don't want to keep living like this, and it needs to be resolved before my trip in three weeks. I'm really starting to regret ever getting that tooth pulled.
I'm planning on getting some clove oil, but it may take awhile to get here. I try some more of that gum numbing gel, but it doesn't seem to work anymore unless I just coat my entire mouth, and for some reason, the taste and texture of it makes me sick. My dad has offered to give me a hydrocodone pill that he had left over from after his hernia surgery, but I'd rather not take pain medication that is not mine.
