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Mouth pain, narcotics, and migraines

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Chronic Pain
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Posted 4/17/2014 10:46 PM (GMT 0)
Hi. I know I have written on here for various problems, got a new one today. I have several probs with pain, so forgive me if each post has a different topic. I swear everything I tell you is true.

Anyway, had oral surgery today to remove a tooth, clear out a really bad infection in the bone above it (they knew it would be bad, but turned out much worse than anticipated), put in bone graft material, sew it up, and bond a fake tooth to the teeth on either side of it. Has to heal for 4 months before next step can be taken. So, I'm on my 3rd different antibiotic (still nauseous), regular meds, and tylenol w/ codeine. I know the meds aren't real strong, (believe me I can feel it), but I get migraines from narcotics. Having a rough day. Lots of ice and rest.

Anyone have problems with narcotic side effects?

I really need the pain relief for my mouth, I choose that and deal with the moderate migraines/nausea. Mouth is very very painful (as expected), swollen, and bleeding. No fun!

Any advice would be nice. Or fun stories or anything to distract from the pain/nausea.

Sorry to complain so much.
Posted 4/18/2014 4:39 AM (GMT 0)
Ugh-mouth pain is no fun.

Ice is good initially, but after 72hrs heat is usually better. I've had both sides of my TMJs replaced, and other bone removed. I didn't think heat would feel better so quickly afterwards, but it did. Moist heat is best.

I hope the pain lessens quickly.
Posted 4/18/2014 5:20 AM (GMT 0)
Have you tried other narcotics? Sometimes folks that can't do opioids can handle tramadol. I am so sorry you're going through this though. Teeth pain is the worst. At least you know that there is an end in sight...
Posted 4/18/2014 5:23 AM (GMT 0)
Thanks for the advice Rocckyd! I'll have to try that. Sounds like you have been thru a lot of mouth pain yourself!! Owie! How are you doing now? I bet it took forever to heal!!

I'm hanging in there. Just took 2 more pain pills 1/2 hour ago after waking up from pain. It's not horrible, I guess about what I expected it to be. Bleeding has almost stopped. :) Swelling is pretty intense...kinda funny though when I look in the mirror....R side is normal, L side is really swollen inside mouth as well as my cheek (upper lip and right next to my nose, almost up to my eye!). But he said to expect that, as well as bad bruising inside my mouth. I like the color purple, but I'd rather not have purple gums instead of pink!! (Easy to see cuz my problem was the tooth next to the front one, upper.) All in all, I guess I'm doing alright...everything is looking/feeling as they said it would!

Dentist is so nice though. I (already) called him after clinic hours because bleeding wasn't slowing down for the first 8 hours, and he didn't mention that would happen. He reassured me that it was ok, and was "normal" considering how deep they had to go because of the infection being so bad. Office is closed tomorrow, but he said he'd give me a call to make sure I was doing ok.

I know my situation isn't nearly as bad as what you went through, but what about sleeping? Did you have to sleep on the non-affected side for a long long time? Guess that is something I will have to ask next week at follow up visit.

Thanks for responding. Always makes things seem a little better when you know someone else has been thru it/can relate!
Posted 4/18/2014 11:24 PM (GMT 0)
OOOO, ouchie ouch ouch!!! I hate teeth pain. It is the worst! I had an oral surgery done too where the dentist wasn't anticipating it to be so bad. They had to cut out a big chunk of my gums & take the tooth next to it out too, now the tooth next to the empty space has broke and now badly infected & needs to be removed. They had to sew part of my gums to my cheek to for some reason. Codene helped my pain quite a bit surprizingly. I couldn't get anything put in to replace the teeth bc it was a free dental clinic.I finally have dental insurance but it's not a very good one at all. The amounts of work needing to be done cost way way more than the insurance is going to cover. There's so much wrong with my teeth that they're going to have to remove a bunch of them but the insurance wont cover enough of it so I can only get a couple taken out & that's it, no more dental insurance for me. They pay up to so much I think it was maybe 2 thousand or something, maybe less. When I get this other tooth taken out I wont have any bottum teeth on the left side of my mouth, I have also had to have my wisdom teeth pulled too. My mom had very bad dental too. Ironically my MIL & husband have bad dental as well. Since you've had surgery & it's an open soar you might not want to try this since it'll burn like crazy, but one thing that has really helped my bad tooth aches is this stuff called "eugenol" I think its clove oil. It burns like crazy crazy bad but it will numb the area.
Posted 4/19/2014 2:16 AM (GMT 0)
Both sides were done at the same time, so sleep was hard.

I have a heating pad that is made to wrap around shoulders. I used this to apply heat to both sides.

I had 2in of bone removed from each side early March. Still have crazy swelling. Anything with teeth/jaw/head, will bleed and remain swollen for quite a while.

Definitely call your dr if you feel like something is not quite right.
Posted 4/19/2014 3:45 AM (GMT 0)
Thanks everyone!

Doing ok still. No more bleeding. Pain is manageable as long as I stay on top of it and continue w/ meds and ice. Swelling, well, it ain't pretty, but i guess as it should be. Going to bed in a few minutes...got headache brewing and feeling a bit nauseous. Over all though, I guess I'm where I should be! :)

Hope everyone sleeps well tonight!! Thanks again for listening and responding!!
Posted 4/19/2014 11:26 AM (GMT 0)
Codeine is actually one of the worst meds for causing narcotics headache, rebound headaches. You can get some Anacin with just Aspirin and caffeine and try taking with the tylenol 3. This gives you excederin like benefits since you can't take excederin due to the tylenol already in the T3.

Hydrocodone or percocet and even tramadol would have been better choices.
Posted 4/19/2014 7:31 PM (GMT 0)
Crap! Figures I'd end up on a med known to cause headaches!! Thanks for the info. I am already taking Tramadol for chronic back pain. Hopefully I won't need the T3 for more than a few more days. At least I know better for next time!!
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