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).
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!
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 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.
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
Sugar fucks you up.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Also, CBD.
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?
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.
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.
Omigod you poor thing.
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 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.
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:
- Wake up. Drink some water.
- Drink a protein shake and some water. Take your medications with them.
- Walk around the block. Or if unsafe or to pained, walk in place. Get that heart rate up.
- Shower or bath.
- Go back to sleep.
- 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.
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 read all this. God damn, I thought root canal procedure was a pain…
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
Fantastic advice man, best of luck for your implants
Flanders, Belgium
Y’all got any more of them poppies?
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 we’re 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.