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).
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.
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
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.
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 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
Diclofenac was my aid to sleep with a broken arm
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
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.
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…
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.
It once worked magically for me to watch television.
If you can get your hands on some old viox that would help. It was amazing for tooth pain.
Popsicles. It’ll help reduce the swelling and numb the pain.
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
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.
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.
Also, CBD.
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.
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.
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.
