The Dentist

[Bletchleyite]

FWIW I had what you might term a "silent abscess" (one with no pain) for a good number of years, and it played merry hell with my health until all of a sudden some years later the pain kicked in and I had it extracted, at which point a load of odd little health issues went away.

So if you're feeling rather under the weather, swollen glands etc and have a slightly odd feeling tooth...go to the dentist, not the doctor. Sadly the disconnect in the NHS between dental and health didn't see fit to point this out, or it'd have been sorted sooner.

 

[Busaholic]

There used to be Dental Hospitals too (some may even still exist). When I worked for Camden Council in the 1970s and needed some treatment, but found it difficult to take time off during the week, I was offered a Saturday morning appointment at the Eastman Dental Hospital on Gray's Inn Road to extract a wisdom tooth - all absolutely free at the time.

 

[Howardh]

FWIW I had what you might term a "silent abscess" (one with no pain) for a good number of years, and it played merry hell with my health until all of a sudden some years later the pain kicked in and I had it extracted, at which point a load of odd little health issues went away.

So if you're feeling rather under the weather, swollen glands etc and have a slightly odd feeling tooth...go to the dentist, not the doctor. Sadly the disconnect in the NHS between dental and health didn't see fit to point this out, or it'd have been sorted sooner.

I had an absess which made one side of my face swollen. The pain was coming from nowhere near my teeth, I could touch each one and nothing. The pain was from between my eye and ear...I went to the doctor as, having just returned from abroad, I assumed a bite, maybe internal as I cycled a lot and some creature could easily have got inside my nostrils and bitten. Or something.

Anyway, he gave me painkillers and sent me straight to our nearest dental unit (Blackburn) where they x-rayed and it was a tooth absess, and yanked the correct tooth out. (How they know which is the right tooth when the pain's in another county...??!!).

Day later, sore but right as rain.

 

[Bletchleyite]

they x-rayed and it was a tooth absess, and yanked the correct tooth out. (How they know which is the right tooth when the pain's in another county...??!!)

They can see the pus sac on the X-ray, usually.