i'm 40 years old and just had ALL my teeth extracted in one go. The pain is excruciating. Any tips for pain relief?

Kyrgizion@lemmy.world to Asklemmy@lemmy.ml – 233 points –

EDIT; I can't reply to everyone individually but thanks for all the suggestions! Opiates are out of the question, doctors here will only prescribe those in terms of absolutely extreme suffering or end of life care. I also don't particularly feel interested in developing a hard drug habit. Diclofenac and such are available but also only on separate prescriptions, I'd have to visit another doctor for that. I'm well stocked on paracetamol & ibuprofen, and apart from that, lots of ice cream, pudding & soup :)

Also, since a fair few people seem to doubt the veracity of my story, here's the 22 extracted teeth (the other 10 were already gone in previous extractions).

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Did you and your doctor not have this conversation!?

Or are you more inclined to listen to the internet over the person who's job it is to pull all your teeth out of your head?

Answer: Oxy.

Entirely this. Where is your health care provider in this conversation???

You should have been sent home with antibiotics, pain killers, and a ream of after care instructions.

Yeah first thing I thought, too. "Have you tried asking somebody who does this professionally? Like, oh I don't know, THE SURGEON?!"

Hi. You've gotten a lot of comments already. I hope this one is not lost in the pile.

When I was 39 I had all my remaining teeth extracted in one go. There were somewhere between 12 and 18, since many were remnants and not whole teeth.

Due to the fact that previously in my life I had addictions of many kinds, mostly alcohol and meth related, I was not prescribed opiates. When the procedure was done, I was awake and given only a local anesthetic.

After they were removed, I was given Amoxicillin (antibiotic) and Prednisone (steriod). They recommended I take Ibuprofen and to avoid acetaminophen (same as paracetamol i think). The latter due to many over the counter versions of it have caffiene. That brings me to my first advice.

Avoid caffeine at all costs. It will increase your pain, make you edgier and you may grind your gums in your sleep. Check your paracetamol packaging, make sure it does not have caffeine. You might want to avoid it regardless because it can irritate your stomach lining and you'll be swallowing a lot of blood which increases your chance of vomiting.

If you vomit, you will almost certainly get dry socket.

You do not want dry socket.

Ice cream is painful. Anything too cold or too hot is painful. Soup should be room temperature.

Bouillon cubes aren't bad, if you can get liquid soup stock or broth, it works better.

Do not eat breads for at least a week or two. It sticks to you clots. That can easily lead to dry socket.

You do not want dry socket.

Same thing with (american) bananas. They might seem perfect but they can cause dry socket potentially from their stickiness.

I have had dry socket. Once from smoking cigarettes. Once from being clumsy with a spoon. It was the worst pain of my life until I had to pass a few kidney stones.

Avoid foods that require cooking. You don't want to cook.

One a day shakes should be your new best friend. Meal replacement shakes. Here in the states they come in chocolate and vanilla and don't taste terrible. Brands include Ensure, Boost, Slimfast and a ton of others. They are packed with protein. They often have vitamins in them too. You can just pour the shake right into the back of your gullet. Bypass your gums and tongue entirely.

Another medication to consider is sleeping pills. I'm spelling them wrong but see if you can get Amitryptaline or Tramadol. Sleep as much as you can while your body heals.

Water, water, water.

Drink at least 2 liters a day. Never drink more than 1 liter in an 8 hour period because water poisoning is very uncomfortable. If your pee is clear, you don't need to drink water for awhile. The better hydrated you are, the faster you will heal. Drink a lot of water after drinking one of those meal replacement shakes if you can find them. Your body will absorb the water better. Same applies to the soup stock.

On that note, shower. If it is too painful, take a bath. Again, this helps you stay hydrated, plus is will improve your mood possibly, which in itself can ease the pain.

Move. Walk around the block if you can. You want to get your heart rate up and keep it up for about 15 minutes, twice a day. Again, this helps your body heal faster. Walking is great unless you are a daily runner, in which case run. Walking is enough for most people.

A perfect routine would be:

  1. Wake up. Drink some water.
  2. Drink a protein shake and some water. Take your medications with them.
  3. Walk around the block. Or if unsafe or to pained, walk in place. Get that heart rate up.
  4. Shower or bath.
  5. Go back to sleep.
  6. Repeat 3-4x per day, depending on how much you can sleep. It gets harder to sleep the more your do it. The exercise helps a lot.

I am not a dentist or medical professional.

I am not a professional of any kind.

This advice is all from personal experience.

Here's some useless personal information that can be skipped:

December of 2021 when my teeth were all removed. Since then I have gotten dentures. They didn't fit and hurt to wear and needed adjustments, but the dentist that made them quit the business a week after I got them. Other dentists would not take my insurance or work on them for liability purposes. Sucks being in america. I opted to get implants instead. I'm supposed to have a full set of teeth in about a month, at age 42, for the first time in my entire adult life.

Good luck. May dry socket never happen to you.

Edit after reading a few of the comments here.

Fuck these naysayers that think you're making this up. Even if you are, fuck 'em. Trying to shit on a person while they are already down. No benefit at all, just cynics, they're disgusting.

I'm going to add that my teeth were in terrible shape long before I had addiction problems. My dental problems were due to braces getting fucked up and mangled beyond belief by a scammy dentist/ortho.

Medicaid and Medicare can be free healthcare in the states. While I don't think OP is in the states, it is a thing that the poorest of people can receive and the care is exactly what you pay for. All the questions about speaking to a doctor or the dentist about pain management are laughable, knowing that for the poor in the states, that simply doesn't happen in many areas.

People saying OP deserved it from not brushing or questions about how one could need a full extraction at age 40 are ignorant and can't summon even the smallest bit of empathy. These types along with the naysayers can go fuck off back to reddit or 4chan or whereever they came from. They are not adding to the conversation.

If you have read all this, anyone not just OP, I hope you have a nice day.

Thank you for the advice, you've made me realize I'm unintentionally given myself a dry socket.

Can not 2nd how much pain I was in, you wish the pain were so intense you'd simply black out. You won't though

I read all this. God damn, I thought root canal procedure was a pain...

Fantastic advice man, best of luck for your implants

Fantastic writeup!

A teeny tiny correction, taking a bath will in fact dehydrate you (only a small bit, unless you have a Swimmingpool and move, then it'll dehydrate you much more)

I was not aware of bathing causing dehydration but I can see how it makes sense. Thanks for the correction!

Did your dentist not give you that advice?

Actually no, I found the entire process to be incredibly rushed and the communication was bad to nonexistent. But that's "free healthcare" for you. Even in places where medical issues don't bankrupt you, the only way to get a truly seamless experience is to go to a private clinic and pay everything out of pocket.

Just to say - this has not been my experience of free healthcare. Not all of it has been great, but most of it has.

Hey, you can come here to the states, pay out the ass for it, even with insurance....and still have the same experience. Long waits, lack of communication, and Doctors that are so booked they give you the once over in 10mins after you have waited on them for hours...

Dental eugenol, it's a fairly powerful local analgesic made from clove oil. Some people have adverse reactions to it and so it isn't used as frequently as it used to. So I would recommend applying it in a small test area before applying it more liberally.

You can buy it online fairly cheaply.

Why tf is the OP's comment to a reasonable question being downvoted so hard?

Because they state that free healthcare is automatically bad healthcare. Which, as a general statement, is just wrong.

Free Healthcare is a broad term for dozens of different policies in dozens of different countries. Just because OP's specific country has problems, doesn't mean that every single implementation of free healthcare leads to bad healthcare. Also a similar rhetoric is used as a dog whistle by the far right in the USA.

Additionally they are using a specific question about their situation, to rant about a much broader topic. This soapboxing called behaviour is generally frowned upon.

So the comment in isolation is wrong, attention seeking & looks like written by someone who is something between a manchild, that is unable/unwilling to present a nuanced opinion, and a nazi. All of which are imho criteria for a downvote.

Lol there's even people accusing me of making it up or going to an illegal dentistry.

If you really want I can post pictures, but I warn you; they really aren't pretty. I suppose I could also post the two or three pages of "aftercare" I got.

All in all, it seems a case of "This hasn't ever happened to me, and it's not my experience, so therefore, it can't have happened to anyone, ever". Whatever floats your boat.

That's simply not true, like at all. Classic American

idk man, that's been my experience in Finland between the public and private healthcare. The public one is completely free, yes, but it's also sometimes rather shit in some things. It's usually pretty good for most things, and free cancer care and whatnot. But psychiatry, dentistry, eh... not as great.

Buut... the difference between a public and a private dentist is night and day. I have gotten good care in the public system as well, but I've never got bad care from private, whereas I've had horrible experiences in the public system. A few good ones, but mostly bad.

I have free healthcare, but I still dropped a grand on dentistry. For one because the public healthcare wouldn't fix cosmetic issues, and I had a bit of dental calculus in a tooth so it looked like I always had a small piece of oregano stuck on a teeth or something. I was comfortable with money at the time so I payed for laughing gas and to all cavities and whatnot. Good service, pretty expensive. But before that I had avoided the dentist for a few years because of an extremely painful experience with the last public dentist I went to.

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+1 wondering why someone in their 40s had to have all teeth extracted. I'm really sorry.

I've had issues with my teeth almost since birth. My parents both had full dentures by ages 25 or so. It was definitely a combination of genetics and bad oral hygiene. I was actually glad to get them all out now because I've suffered from debilitating pain for weeks at least once or twice every single year of my life.

I feel you. I grew up on well water (no fluoride), have a genetic predisposition for terribly crooked teeth, and wasn't taught basic oral hygiene until I was legally an adult.

I've had several extractions but every time it has been either an abscess or an impacted tooth, so just the relief from that pain was almost like a drug itself. About half my teeth are fake at this point and the ones that are left are in pretty good shape because they weren't too far gone when I actually learned how to properly take care of them.

Similar issues (no floride as a kid, natually crooked). I floated the idea of getting mine replaced all together with my dentist a couple months ago. She advised against it, said it would change the sense of taste / food taste. I dunno if that's accurate, but it put me off the idea for a bit.

My brother had his removed a few years ago (he spent years dipping tobacco). He looked like he'd been in a car wreck with serious bruising under his eyes. I don't know how long he had that look as I was visiting and didn't see the full recovery.

I just replaced mine as they were abscessed or impacted and I didn't notice a change, but that was over several years. I would have died in the middle ages.

If you can afford it I recommend getting the worst of them replaced with implants. If you can't then get some partial dentures to replace whatever you've lost. It will help both your confidence and quality of life.

fluoride in water doesn't do much to prevent tooth decay.

the fluoride in toothpaste is what does all heavy lifting.

Fluoride in water can help if you're not taught proper care and feeding of teeth, but you are right. The fluoride in toothpaste is what should be doing the heavy lifting.

I'm in a similar situation. Have tried to get where you're at, but have been quoted in the $30,000 price range. There is no insurance that covers any of that cost, and they all want payment up front.

Any suggestions?

Thanks for sharing - I'm glad to know this is an improvement for you in spite of everything. I hope the pain eases soon!

It was definitely a combination of genetics and bad oral hygiene.

I'm in the same boat. 35 and half of them are already gone, my mum had them all removed when she was 40. My dentist is not crazy enough to take them out all at once though, that sounds insanely painful. I hope you'll get through it soon.

I’m so sorry to hear about the pain. Doctors don’t take oral pain seriously enough.

Don’t forget you can ice it too. Alternating ibuprofen/acetominophen thing is your best bet outside of more serious pain meds, but ice is effective for numbing pain.

I had 6 teeth removed at once. I can remember the pain. I found crushed or blended ice was helpful and doesn’t have risk of getting stuck.

It will be okay. Setting your expectations will help mentally. It’s still really rough. Did they prescribe you anything in terms of pain management?

OTC: Tylenol didn’t touch the pain. Ibuprofen helped some but was still pretty mild.

fyi tylenol is a brand name drug of paracetamol (or in the US i believe acetaminophen)

i believe it and ibuprofen relieve different causes of pain, and in australia we’re advised that both paracetamol/acetaminophen and ibuprofen work well in conjunction

… also ibuprofen and caffeine are acrually a great combo for pain relief! so much so they they sell the combination as a product

I had 8 teeth pulled at once, many years ago. I couldn't take Tylenol 3s as they made me sick. I did my best with ibuprofen and acetaminophen (one Motrin, one Tylenol extra strength). My father kept me distracted as much as possible. His advice was to keep your mind distracted as it can help with the pain.

Yeah this is a good option - too much ibuprofen is harmful, as is too much acetaminophen. But you can take both together and get double the pain relief.

NO DO NOT TAKE THEM TOGETHER.

You need to alternate them. Taking them together creates negatively synergistic effects which ruins your health.

FOR ANYONE READING DO NOT MIX IBUPROFEN AND ACETAMINOPHEN

that’s SO wrong… in australia our doctors and surgeons FREQEUENTLY tell us to take both ibuprofen and paracetamol (which is what most of the world calls acetaminophen) together

perhaps you’re thinking of taking and

ie do not take tylenol and paracetamol/acetaminophen, since they’re the same and you’re double dosing

to add:

too much paracetamol/acetaminophen causes liver damage

too much ibuprofen effects your stomach, intestines, and kidneys

their overdose effects are different

0Further down this user realized they didn't really remember the name of which meds to not mix and may have been thinking of aspirin/ibuprofen ....lol

Do what I did as a kid getting my wisdom teeth removed. Have your mother steal the prescription meds and then suffer for two weeks with Tylenol.

Whenever i think i had a bad childhood, i'll think back to that very comment.

I could tell you about the drunken screaming too if it'll help lol

I still don't understand how a lot of our organs evolved to self repair and generally be so sophisticated but our teeth need so much care to avoid pain and infection.

The human diet changed so quickly and the ability to do things about tooth pain and infection aside from dying means that there isn't really evolutionary pressure in most of the world for teeth to meet the current "needs", as it were.

Our teeth do much better when we eat a diet that's more in line with our evolution. Check out pictures of primal tribes. They very often have beautiful smiles.

I was under the impression that people in primal tribes just die before this becomes a massive problem

Not really AFAIK they still get up to 50-60, it's just the ungodly amount of child deaths that pull down the average to like 30

I don't know what your dentist is on (he must be high on something) to agree to remove all your teeth at once.

I had all my wisdom teeth pulled and they did that two per side, as otherwise the sedative would relax the tounge muscle, which might cause you to choke. After that I got sent home with a big stack of painkillers (NSAIDS, no opiates).

I'd look for a different dentist tbh, but thats a bit late now.

OP likely had a disgusting rotting mouth, with deep gingival pockets-of-pus, from never flossing and brushing their fucking teeth.

My friend is a periodontal surgeon and tells me the most horrendously disgusting shit people tolerate (sometimes with photos) and that level of extraction that OP is complaining about sounds close to one of his very gory horrific descriptions of people neglecting simple oral hygiene.

My stepfather has constant, disgusting mouth infections because he eats terribly, never cares for his teeth, and smokes. Bro had a pocket of puss inside his mouth that made him look like he was keeping a golfball in his mouth. He won't go to a dentist because he claims his mouth can't be numbed. He says it just doesn't work. In reality, he's just scared. Man never goes to a doctor for anything because he's scared.

he claims his mouth can't be numbed

This is a thing. My wife has to get lots of extra shots of the gum numbing stuff. Her first dentist as a kid didn't believe her that she could still feel and it caused her huge trauma.

I'm guessing your wife might be a redhead and/or has Ehlers Danlos Syndrome as both groups are resistant to certain types of local anesthesia. I have the latter and novocaine does next to nothing for me without using massive volumes.

Assuming I'm vaguely correct, if she hasn't done so already, consider trying articaine, bupivacaine, or mepivacaine. I explained my situation to my dentist and he allowed me to trial each before jumping into dental work. Articaine was the first we tried and it works great for me.

Here's the article I provided as evidence I'm not just crazy: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6834718/

We have found a bunch of sedation dentists for my stepfather and he always cancels appointments last minute. His mouth is literally rotting. I can't comprehend how he can be okay with his mouth being in that state. It could kill him so easy

Alternating the paracetamol and ibuprofen on a schedule is the best recommendation I can give. Severe pain, especially post-operative pain, is best managed by taking the pain meds before the pain sets in. The ibuprofen is also an NSAID and the swelling and inflammation are big contributors to pain.

The schedule that I always recommend is:

  • 0800: 650-1000mg paracetamol (acetaminophen)

  • 1200: 600-800mg ibuprofen

  • 1600: 650-1000mg paracetamol (acetaminophen)

  • 2000: 600-800mg ibuprofen

  • (and in the first day or two after surgery, set alarms to wake up and take pain meds at 0000 and 0400 on the same pattern if the pain is really bad.)

This pattern keeps you covered on pain control, and you can shorten the intervals to every 3 hours if this isn't enough without exceeding daily dose limits on either medication. If you are an American reading this and you're also taking something like Norco, make sure to account for the acetaminophen/tylenol/paracetamol that's in those because exceeding the recommended dose on that one is bad news for your liver.

Like some other folks have said, warm saline (salt water) rinses and soft or liquid foods are going to help as well.

to add to this, i’ve been told by doctors in the past that caffeine helps the effectiveness of ibuprofen - i’d guess though same usual rules with caffeine as always; it’ll keep you awake, so don’t take it too late

i’m no doctor though - just my memory of what doctors and nurses here in australia have said

Yeah, caffeine is a good vasoconstrictor, so it can help with headaches that are not from something like high blood pressure. Paracetamol/acetaminophen is really good for headaches on its own because it gets into the brain better.

Weed

Terrible advice unless it's with edibles. Smoking weed (or anything else) will lead to dry socket most likely and should be avoided at all costs.

Sorry about that dude! This doesn't help with the pain right now, but they've just started human trials on a new therapy that re-enables your tooth buds, allowing you to grow a new set of adult teeth. Maybe it'll be available soonish 🤞

https://www.newsnationnow.com/health/tooth-regrow-drug-dental-health/

I hope this becomes available before my teeth start having problems... Now that I think about it, I think I'll go brush my teeth now.

I had an infected tooth and the pain was awful. The dentist told me to take four ibuprofen. When I mentioned the instructions said no more than two at a time he said it was okay for a short period of time.

I don't have much advice to offer, but I wish you the best

I do have a friend who self medicates with marijuana and CBD products for pain management. They have a number of undiagnosed and late diagnosed health problems they're working through that cause different kinds of pain. Depending on local legality and availability that could be an option. Just keep dosage extremely low of you've never tried it before, as in single digit milligrams low dosage as the side effects of too high of a dose can be unpleasant

Those rocket icecreems Cold pack

Eat stuff you don't have to shew... So you don t open the wounds again.

2% betadine mouth wash... Not against pain but to keep more pain away.

I love the 1000 paracetamol with codeine alternated with brufen 600.

In a day or 2 it will be beter. Hang on.

Ibuprofen (Advil) and acetaminophen/paracetamol (Tylenol). Take max dosage but alternate them. Read the bottle and don't quote me, but it's something like 800mg ibuprofen every 8 hours and 1000mg of paracetamol every 6. So take ibuprofen, 3-4 hours later take paracetamol, then back and forth. Do not exceed 2400/4000 or whatever your bottle says.

That's the method I was taught to get the most/longest pain relief with OTC.

I recently had to deal with a very painful tooth surgery. Unsafe amounts of combined paracetamol, ibuprofen and more did not help. It hurt enough that I considered grabbing pliers and pulling my teeth out.

Eventually I was given opioid medication. I did not remember much of my time on it, but that's better than the pain

Combined Tylenol and ibuprofen is probably your best bet otc.

Like Motrin.

No!

DO NOT MIX ibuprofen and acetaminophen!

You need to alternate these in schedule:

  • Take 600-800 mg ibuprofen
  • Wait six hours
  • Take 500-1000 mg acetaminophen
  • Wait six hours
  • repeat

Note that the upper end doses I mentioned are SHORT TERM dosages. Don’t do that more than a couple of days.

Where have you been told this? Are you perhaps confusing acetaminophen for something else? Doctors will tell you that you can take ibuprofen and acetaminophen (paracetamol) together . It's advised you wait an hour after you take one type before you take the other to see if the first medication works well enough. There are even medications sold as a combination of both. What you shouldn't take ibuprofen along with other Non-steroidal anti-i inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) like aspirin.

You may be right. The combination of ibuprofen and aspirin might be the thing I was advised against by my doctor. It was back in 2019 that I had this event so my memory could be hazy.

On the other hand, when’s the last time you saw a box of Combogesic on the shelf?

chiming in again, because this is FLAT OUT WRONG

combining these is the instructions we are given in australia by doctors and surgeons. it’s not only okay, it’s RECOMMENDED to avoid needing stronger pain killers

Diclofenac was my aid to sleep with a broken arm

Not sure what's available where you're at without a prescription, but I recommend Orajel or any equivalent ulcer/tooth ache gel.

In addition to the other things you're already using, you can steep black tea bags in warm water and gently bite on that. The tannins help with bleeding and inflammation.

A mouthwash or spray with Cetylpyridinium Chloride in the ingredients list will help with healing, but don't buy a mouthwash that has alcohol/isopropyl in the ingredients. Dentyl, Oral B Gum detoxify, Parodontax, Biotene Dry Mouth Spray are all good.

I had several teeth removed from my inside my jaw that never came out and had a bone graft placed in the area that had to heal for 6 months before dental implants were placed. The mouthwash definitely helped me heal faster from that surgery than when I had my wisdom teeth out the year before and didn't use any. Just do a gentle rinse dont swish it around hard! You don't want to disturb the blood clots and get dry socket.

I hope you start to feel better soon!

Holy shit... When I got my wisdom teeth out, I literally broke down in tears after being awake for 20 minutes without Percocet

Friend, it's ok to take opiates sometimes...

Kratom could be an option. You make it into tea, the first cup is a weak stimulant, the second (on an empty stomach) will start to work as a weak opiate. The third or fourth might give you stronger relief. The red strains are supposedly better for pain relief

You can't OD on it, it's commonly available in head shops or online. The addiction potential is very low, you'll make yourself nauseous before getting what you'd get out of normal opiates. It's most closely related to the coffee plant - the toxicity concerns are all about contamination, the plant itself is pretty innocuous

I can give brewing instructions if anyone wants to go down that path, I drink it for anxiety but others say it helps with pain management

Wash your mouth out with salt water, worked a treat when had my wisdom teeth removed.

Just avoid vigorous rinsing, because you don’t want to dislodge the blood clots

Dude, meds. Just rejoice in all the medication possible. It wont last long, hang in there

Im assuming if op had to get all his teeth removed he also can't afford the meds or the anti-drysocket paste that dentists should use to help with this pain. I could be wrong

oh man sorry i forgot about this (not american) but maybe do a donation page? Having pain, in the head nonthe less, is fucking horrible no one deserves it

Clove oil. You can get it in a tiny vial at the chemist. You pick off small bits of cotton, roll them into little balls, and dip into the clove oil. Wring out most of it against the side of the bottle, then place directly on the site of pain and bite.

In your case you might want to make strips of cotton or something.

It tastes absolutely horrible and will make your whole mouth numb, but it is antiseptic and will give you enough relief to sleep.

I've never gone through this exactly but have had stints of prolonged pain. I really hate painkillers. I try to meditate. I try to remove my self from the pain and see it externally. Not make it disappear, just see it as separate from myself. And I try to focus on the temporary nature of it. It will pass. In time, I won't even remember how intense it was. The memory will be there, but not the detail.

Basically, one can avoid being traumatized by a thing by choosing to willingly embrace it.

Trauma comes when the mind is recoiling.

The pain will still hurt when being embraced, but it won’t “scar” a person the way pain experienced on retreat will.

Omg, this sounds awful, you have my deepest sympathy. Didn't they give you anything for pain management!?

I had a friend do this. It was utter misery for over a year. Most of his teeth were shattered, so he had to wait for a lot of fragments to expel naturally.

Do not discount pain management that involves opioids. Not saying to use them for weeks nor do I know your personality for bad habits, but if it gets bad please don't suffer for no reason. Getting ibuprofen or acetaminophen with low dose codine may be a good middle ground and is even available over the counter in some countries. Extended pain is mentally exhausting and isn't worth the hit on your mental health.

f you are struggling taking pills, get liquid ibuprofen. Sometimes you can get a chemist to make a suspension for you, otherwise get childrens. I do that if my throat gets too infected and I am unable to swallow. Honestly, it works far better than the pills and I needed a lot less.

Best thing is to be honest with your doctors, even if you do not want anything stronger. Be sure to communicate any discomfort due to ill fitting dentures. Ask questions if anything unexpected comes up. My friend's doctor was super shitty and didn't even tell him about all of the left over fragments that still had to come out on their own.

I also realize that taking so often or much of some medicaments could harm your liver.

So I would recommend to see if you can reduce the dosage after week or so when the pain finally reduces a bit.

I am also unsure how much liver damage you can get, maybe I am just paranoid and its not that severe.

Just had mine yeeted 3 weeks ago... and the pain was a relief compared to the pain I was in before... I got by the first couple of days with the oxcodone the doc prescribed in addition to 800mg ibuprofen. After 2 days or so I stopped taking the oxy and took the ibuprofen only for the next week until the big pills were gone and then periodically just taking 400mg as needed for pain. 3 weeks later and there's no more pain at all and I have started eating things a little more solid woth the dentures I got...

I dont have an answer to your question but I do wanna say that prescription opiates are given at a dose that isn't expected to cause addiction in someone who doesn't already take these drugs. I've been prescribed opiates after every surgery I've had—usually don't take them cause I don't need them but I have done at times when the pain has been bad enough. I understand that your docs won't prescribe them though, and I don't recommend taking them without a prescription if you can't guarantee that you're getting them from a safe source.

Have you contacted your dentist to see if they will prescribe you something for pain? I had a wisdom tooth pulled yesterday (in the United States) and had the ability to request a pain medication if I needed it.

The handout I was given recommended 500 mg of acetaminophen then three hours later 600 mg of ibuprofen, repeating that throughout day. The last dose of the day (before bed?) taking both 500 mg of acetaminophen and 600 mg of ibuprofen and six hours later start alternating again. You can give this a try but, I am just describing what I was given.

I hope this helps, good luck, and feel better soon.

Try to get some prescription painkillers, ideally opioids. None of the over-the-counter stuff even comes close. Tramadol helped me manage pain after my surgery.

Neat whisky. You don't need to drink it if you don't want, just gently swirl it around your mouth for a while and spit it out.

Do not actually do this, if someone is reading this. Alcohol after dental surgery is a risk, as it can mess with wound healing.

Now this sounds like a good antiseptic but wouldn't that be very very painful?

I was actually warned against this since it can apparently cause actual burns if the liquor is high proof.

Lol good, glad you're getting some good advice. Sorry you are dealing with this op, i dunno what you had to do but i have had a tooth extracted at a dental 'training facility' and my body won't forget that, ever

DO NO DO THIS; IT WILL DISSOLVE THE BLOOD CLOTS WHICH MUST REMAIN IN PLACE

No one here recommending Orajel? Literally designed specifically for mouth pain.

Just empty the whole tube in there and swish it around. I'm sure it'll be fine.

::: spoiler Poe's Law Please don't do this :::

Seriously just don’t even say it. Your Poes Law thing requires an active click to see.

OP is a person in pain, whose head is in a new configuration (which is disorienting, reducing their cognitive capacities until the proprioceptive remapping is complete).

The danger of a misread is just too great.

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Weed and ibuprofen is how I got through my tooth extraction. Mind you, it wasn't as severe as yours. But I took a large enough (but still reasonable) dose that I kinda just conked out after

You probably know this and were referring to gummies or something, but it needs to be said that smoking is not advised after a tooth extraction or pretty much any dental work. Not a great idea before hand either as the weed (in any form) can make the drugs that the dentist gives you less effective and coming down from a large dose of those can be a worse pain than the stitches in your mouth.

I don’t know where you are, but if you’re in Europe I’d get my hands on some Novalgin (illegal in the US because it isn’t addictive) other than that there’s some kind of pads for jaw operations that you put in the freezer.

I personally find pain more bearable than the cold, so no ice and a lot of sleep for me

Popsicles. It’ll help reduce the swelling and numb the pain.

When my wisdom tooth were pulled the only thing that seemed to help was to double up on some otc painkillers and take them together - acetaminophen and ibuprofen together worked the best. Look into it, I’m not a doctor etc etc

Just gonna keep repeating this PSA everywhere I see this advise:

DO NOT MIX IBUPROFEN AND ACETAMINOPHEN; INSTEAD ALTERNATE THEM

That didn’t help me but it’s good to cover all the angles. What are the resulting negative effects from not alternating them?

I don’t know. All the doctors I’ve talked to told me not to mix them. Perhaps too many organ systems being stressed at once (ibuprofen affects the stomach and acetaminophen affects the liver)

Max dose of acetaminophen and max dose of ibuprofen does a good job with oral pain. Usually with that baby extractions the Dr will write a prescription for some opioid or at least toradol for a few days.

Just so long as you don’t take them at the same time. Alternate them

No need. They work on entirely different mechanisms of action and are metabolized differently as well. They actually work synergistically when taken together with no increased risk over taking them separately.

Weed.

If you do this option, don't smoke, find some edibles. I'm pretty sure smoking right after having teeth pulled is a really bad idea (not 100% sure, but pretty sure)

You are correct. You don’t want to create suction in your mouth for a few days after having a tooth extracted. You’ll end up with something called a dry socket, which is far more excruciating than the initial pain of extraction.

Smoking can cause dry-socket which is also incredibly painful. I smoked anyway after my extraction because I'm a filthy addict, rinsing with saline after every puff and got away with it, but it's a risk yeah

ineffective for dental pain IMO

It was much nicer for me then opioids when I had a bicycle colision, planted my face firmly into the pavement and had to have a number of roots canals and 3 hours of buccal surgery.

For me it just made it hurt weird, it didn't make it not hurt. Maybe one of those things where not everyone responds the same way.

That’s what opioids do to me; they just make it hurt weird in a way that doesn’t matter.

hurt weird and feel out of it in a way that was absolutely NOT fun

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If you can't get pain meds I'd try Kratom.

Start with a low dose and work your way up. If you take too much you will puke which would be awful in your current condition.

Take the right dose and it will significantly relieve the pain. I slowly took increased doses until they started to make me feel a little woozy or get cold sweats. Then I knew my personal dose is a little less than that.

I can't stress enough though - take less at first and try a little more each time.

Either eat food with it every time or take on an empty stomach every time, but don't go back and forth unless you know your proper personal dose with and without food. It matters a lot with Kratom.

All that said, do it right and it will bring more relief than anything else I've been able to legally acquire. Absolutely do not allow yourself to take it every day once the pain is manageable. Plenty of people do... But don't do that.

Good luck. No matter what - this is only temporary. You will get through it.

My mom has chronic pain from disabilities and started taking Kratom a few years back. I tried it first to test things out before she started. We misread the instructions, and steeped about 10x more than we should have in orange juice for several hours.

I have never been so sick. OMG. It was 3 days of pure hell.

But here's the kicker, doing that with any other medication would've killed me. This just made me sick. It's a weird way to begin saying you swear by something, but I swear by the stuff. It is genuinely helpful, and it has an upper limit, so it's risk for abuse is low. Stuff is great.

ouch. my brother was lucky and the dentist was able to save some including four he said would help a lot with bridge fit.

OP a lot of people are advising you to COMBINE ibuprofen and acetaminophen.

DO NOT MIX THESE TWO DRUGS; INSTEAD, ALTERNATE THEM

You can alternate them, taking ibuprofen, then later taking acetaminophen.

But don’t mix them. I’m sorry for spamming the allcaps throughout this thread but there is very dangerous medical advice being given.

They sell ibuprofen with acetaminophen at the pharmacy, off the shelf, so that's not an issue.

It is recommended to alternate between the two so that you are always under the effect of either one and it reduces the pain throughout the day, instead of having big spikes of pain/no-pain.

I mean you can combine them, if the pain is expected to be short term, but in OP’s case the pain is likely to be longer term, where alternating may be a better choice. For example Excedrin is a combo of acetaminophen, NSAID (aspirin), and caffeine.

Yeah Combogesic is an example of combined ibuprofen and acetaminophen. Advil also makes a combo of the two as well. The main issue to keep track of what you're taking and take care that you don't exceed the daily dose for each. That's something to watch out for whether you take them separately or in combination with one another.

This is why I buy drugs individually instead of combined whenever possible—for greater control over what exactly I’m taking.

It's perfectly safe to take them at the same time and was the exact advice given to me after having my wisdom teeth extracted. You can even buy medication that has both ingredients, like Excedrin. One is metabolized by the kidneys and the other by the liver.

This combination is actually shown to work better than opiates for dental pain

most people dont develop an addiction to opiods when taken as directed by your doctor.

speaking of, go to urgent care or your PCP if they can fit you in for a perception. a dentist is going to be worthless for anything other than the mouth bones.

Weeelllll….

At the end of your bottle, if you’re taking them as prescribed, which is usually every 4-6hrs? Do that for a week and your body would be addicted. A full bottle + a refill, even two? It’s not about taking them recreationally. Your body and brain get addicted when they’re in your system regularly. I would know, got hit by a car, I think I only had one refill, and I was going through withdrawals at the end. I wasn’t even taking them as often as prescribed, mostly “as needed.” That was still regular enough.

You're confusing dependence for addiction.

Dependence is the tolerance one develops over time and the withdrawal someone suffers after stopping a drug.

Addiction is behavioral disorder that refers to the desire a person feels for the effects of a drug.

most people dont develop an addiction to opiods when taken as directed by your doctor.

when i had surgery i got a tray of 10 for when the pain became unmanageable, and was told ibuprofen and paracetamol as per instructions otherwise… extremely limited supply is a real help to ensure you understand the “UNMANAGEABLE” part

i ended up using 2 and disposing of the rest

Dealing with opiate withdrawal can be less damaging than extreme levels of pain.

Pain is not just a feeling. At extreme levels it reprograms the nervous system in ways that are really, really bad long term.

If you can get your hands on some old viox that would help. It was amazing for tooth pain.

Damn, man, with all your teeth gone, I guess the universe is telling you it’s time to switch to IV, huh? No more chomping down on the pipe—now you’ve got the perfect excuse to go straight to the veins. On the bright side, at least you don’t have to worry about your teeth falling out anymore—they’re already gone! Looks like it’s all about that gum game now, right?