Here's the 411:
A couple weeks ago I had a crown put in on #2. (My upper right molar in front of the wisdom tooth - which was pulled a few years back) It was fine for 10 days or so, other than the typical soreness that goes with having your mouth messed with. Saturday or Sunday, or maybe even Friday the whole right side of my jaw started to hurt a little when I would drink something cold. Well, I had just been in so I didn't expect it to have anything to do with getting a new cavity on that side. Plus it was hurting on the bottom side more than the top when I would drink. Sunday night it started hurting so bad in the middle of the night I couldn't sleep worth a hill of beans - that's about 75Euro right?
So yesterday I go to work, and the pain has now migrated to the "hinge" and the top, but the constant aching has gone away, and now just hurts when I drink cold liquids. So I just put up with it yesterday, but I drink a lot of liquids so it hurts pretty bad when I do drink. So last night, I get home and experiment, and drink some warm water - no pain other than the constant aching that has come back later in the day. Of course it hurts to chew so all I have is applesauce and suck it down as quick as I can because I keep it in the fridge even before I open it. After that I step up the temp of the water, and get it as hot as I can drink without it burning. Ok, that doesn't hurt, and I just hold it in my mouth for a while. No pain, and actually what seems like a bit of relief.
After I swallow or spit the water out, and my mouth starts to cool back down it starts to ache again. Last night more pain while attempting to sleep. This morning the pain has now moved solely to the top of the jaw, still localized to the right side, but the center of the pain has moved further forward - maybe two teeth forward of the #2 molar. Ok, now it really is starting to hurt so I call the dentist up and say "Hey, can you take a look at this."
I'm thinking maybe the crown wasn't fitted exactly right and I'm hitting it when chewing or something, but can't really feel the impact. Well, no, that wasn't the case, and they took a bite wing x-ray after a visual inspection, and that didn't show any nerve dying, or any visible infection, but I'm not sure how much you can see with an x-ray, so they schedule me to see an endodontist on Dec 1.
I head back to the office and the pain starts getting worse and worse. So I head to the Pharmacy to get some tylenol or something, and I call the dentist to ask what I should get for the pain. And he just ends up calling in a script for me for 500mg of HC and another one for amoxicillin just in case there is an infection. So I take the 500mg at lunch, and it helps a little. But by the time I get home at 5:30 it has gotten worse. So I take another 500mg at around 6 along with a second dose of amox - which was due (4per24hr on the dosage). Around 8, I start getting a "firing" pain in the jaw which brings tears to the eyes it hurts so bad. So I take another 500mg of HC which still hasn't done much good. The firing pain is gone, but I don't think the HC is working at all because it hurts to chew and talk, although who knows how bad it might be if I didn't take it. So that's where I am not now with it.
There is one good thing about this though. This pain in the jaw (which is now localized at the hinge again) has made the sprained MCL that I currently have seem not so bad right now.
I'll take my 3rd dose of amox at 11 or 12, and depending how bad it is maybe another 500mg of HC, but I don't want to really over do that because I know it's not good on the liver. Although, I know they issue it in higher doses at 8hr intervals than 500mg so it might be ok?
As far as the judgement goes, I don't want to argue with the professionals on this, but when I took HC the first time I was prescribed it (about 10 years ago) I would get a buzz. The last two times - including this one, I don't get it. In fact, taking it today, I didn't get drowsy, or loopy, or hyper like I did in the past. I'm not even sure it is having any effect.
