Dentist Refusing To Help

[shaggy1969]

Hello good folks,

Last week my g/f's little four year old had chronic toothache due,the poor little mite was in so much pain.

The only thing she could give him was paracetamol for toddlers and this had no effect against the pain.

I said to my g/f that he needs to go and see the dentist but she said to me that the dentist wouldn't do any work whilst he was in pain.

After much nagging by me they finally went to see the dentist,and guess what.....silly b/f should of listened.

The dentist refused on the grounds that he didn't want to be held liable incas something happened after the tooth was extracted.

He did however dentist give him something to fight the infection and said he would remove the tooth when the pain was gone.

Can anyone explain to my why the dentist wouldn't treat him,am I missing something here? After all it was only a milk tooth.

Shaggy

[shaggy1969]

Almost forgot,this is a must to have in your home first aid box.

Shaggy

[ajahnlau]

Most dentists won't extract with infection present. Couple days on antibiotics and pain will go down, then after 5-7 days extraction can be done.

[JohnC]

Had a similar problem with my youngest son years ago in UK, he had an abcess and the dentist prescribed an anti-biotic, after the infection cleared he removed the tooth.

[JDGRUEN]

One can calm most toothaches - even ones with infection or serious gum irritation buy applying oil of cloves or just plain ground clove spice. It has an amazing effect. Note I say 'calm' not eliminate or cure. But cloves will calm enough to allow the crisis of a child or even adult to subside and by providing a fair degree of relief. The cloves must be reapply periodically.. The infected tooth, if pulled while active infection exist, can cause the infection to spread into the surrounding tissues and most dangerously into the blood stream. Thus the reason the dentist will prescribe antibiotics until the infection is gone.

[theblether]

As mentioned, the dentist acted correctly. Removing the tooth while infected can cause serious problems, including blood poisoning.

[lopburi3]

As well as extreme pain - been there! An abcess has an amazing ability to absorb Xylocaine and preventing it getting to nerves and extraction done with infection present is with no pain relief. Infection needs to be cleared first and for pain oil of clove works wonders.

[chuang]

Medical complications..the dentist is right..

[lopburi3]

Flame removed.

[phuturatica]

Most dentists won't extract with infection present. Couple days on antibiotics and pain will go down, then after 5-7 days extraction can be done.

What they said.

Antibiotics first and treat the infection. The pain will go once the infection has gone.

[shaggy1969]

Thanks for your replies folks,

I can see now that I was clearly wrong and didn't even think about the problem of the infection making a much more serious problem later.I was only thinking how to get the pain away from the little chap as quick as possible.

Those of you that mentioned clove oil,yes you are correct it is wonderful stuff.I haven't been able to come across any yet in Thailand but the closest I could find to it was what M16 (post #2).

Once again,many thanks

[NancyL]

The dentist may have clove oil. Many decades ago, I had my wisdom teeth removed at a major U.S. university with a large teaching dental college. After the extractions, they told me to come back a week later for follow-up. During that week, the pain got worse and worse, but I toughed it out. When I returned a week later, they were amazed I hadn't been in earlier (I thought the pain normal) and they said I had "dry sockets". Apparently the upper extractions weren't healing properly. The lower ones were because they said they remained "wet" since they were on the bottom. (gravity, you know)

The treatment was for them to open up the wounds with the top extractions and pack the holes with strips of cloth soaked in clove oil. I had to return daily, for a week, for them to remove amazingly long strips of nasty-looking cloth and replace with fresh clove-soaked strips. The relief was immediate!