Toothache

[Accyexplorer]

Have you ever suffered from toothache? The mere mention of the word can make folk cringe,its said to be one of the worst pains imaginable- I can now confirm this.
Last week (Mon-Tues) I developed a severe pain in one of my molars,the pain radiated through my cheekbone,and was also causing me earache (a worthy contender for the worst pain ever).
I took a ibuprofen (400mg) and a paracetamol (200mg),I also gargled with a little bit of TCP,but the pain was persistent in giving me grief.
By Thursday my face had swollen up and i was feeling a little feverous.Fearing infection,I went to the quacks and got a course of antibiotics (amoxicillin).
The pain just kept getting worse but I suffer from a fear of dentists so i 'stupidly' dismissed the I needed to get it extracted.
Over the next couple of days I tried dealing with the relentless pain using a arsenal of relief treatments.Everything from oil of cloves and rinsing with warm salty water to tramadol when the unremitting pain got too much to bare.
By Saturday, I was in total agony so needing urgent treatment Mrs E arranged for me to see a (emergency?) dentist up at oak house.
I'll be honest,my sphincter was twitching,I really don't like going to see the dentist even if their not the drill and fill type of yesteryear.
I'm pleased to say that the staff up there were excellent and before I knew it I was minus a tooth and pain free....god bless the NHS the saviour of our nation's health .

[Margaret Pilkington]

I also had a phobia of dentists...I didn't visit the dentists for more than 40 years.
I filed down broken teeth with a diamond file rather than go and be seen.
Then i decided that this was stupid. I put myself on the list to be accepted by Accy Vic dentist(this later became the current Oak house Dentists).
I was assigned to the care of a lovely man....David Heeley. In the first few weeks he removed 5 broken stumps of teeth and did a couple fillings for me.
He offered to refer me to hospital for a general anaesthetic, but I declined and had all this work done under local anaesthetic.....he went at my pace and was very very patient with me.
I have been going for regular check ups now for about 8 years.
I still get butterflies when I have to attend, but I am far better.
Alas on the 17th of December David Heeley left Oak house to take over a dental unit for nervous and vulnerable adults in based in Preston.
I will have to get used to someone new, but due to the good work he did I know that this is OK......and those very nervous patients in Preston are getting a gem of a dentist.

Jason, glad to hear that you have been sorted out.....now you should see if they would take you on, so that you never need to go through all that again.

[Accyexplorer]

40years I thought my 5yr campaign was impressive.
I also received a similar treatment,the dentist was great,my visible body shakes were a obvious giveaway to my phobia.
One thing is certain,sooner or later,the excruciating pain of toothache 'will' drive you to seek oral treatment at the dentist.

Good on you getting through that many years without a visit or popping painkillers like sweets

[Margaret Pilkington]

In all other respects I looked after my teeth....and I know that might sound crazy when I did not visit the dentist for so long...but I did clean my teeth regularly........I was just so afraid of dentistry...and it all stems back to being held down in the dentists chair in the School dentists on Cannon street....way back when children were seen and not heard.
That is where my phobia began.
It is something that is never truly eradicated, but the care and kindness of the team at Oak House have made it manageable.
So Jason get yourself signed up to their list if you can...i promise you will never regret it.

[Accyexplorer]

Originally Posted by Margaret Pilkington

it all stems back to being held down in the dentists chair in the School dentists on Cannon street....way back when children were seen and not heard.
That is where my phobia began.

By "held down", do you mean physically restrained? Did kids get their arms strapped down at Cannon st?

Originally Posted by Margaret Pilkington

So Jason get yourself signed up to their list if you can...i promise you will never regret it.

It's on my todo list,like you say,I won't regret it.

[Margaret Pilkington]

Originally Posted by Accyexplorer

By "held down", do you mean physically restrained? Did kids get their arms strapped down at Cannon st?



It's on my todo list,like you say,I won't regret it.

I wasn't strapped down , but held down by a very beefy dental assistant while my tooth was drilled and filled.....I would have been about eight or nine years old at the time.

Glad to hear that you are going to make Oak house a regular on your calendar.

[DtheP47]

Originally Posted by Margaret Pilkington

In all other respects I looked after my teeth....and I know that might sound crazy when I did not visit the dentist for so long...but I did clean my teeth regularly........I was just so afraid of dentistry...and it all stems back to being held down in the dentists chair in the School dentists on Cannon street....way back when children were seen and not heard.
That is where my phobia began.
It is something that is never truly eradicated, but the care and kindness of the team at Oak House have made it manageable.
So Jason get yourself signed up to their list if you can...i promise you will never regret it.

Yes Margaret those Cannon Street dentists were the stuff of nightmares and still give me the heebie jeebies just thinking about em'. It was the slow running belt drives whirring about just above your head and the whining drill vibrations resonating through my scull that put me off dentists for a good few years.
I am sure Ian Fleming modeled Rosa Klebb in From Russia With Love on the lady who attacked my teeth there back in the day.

[Margaret Pilkington]

(Shudder)......Yes, except the dental assistant in my past was like a Russian shot putter.
It takes no effort at all to bring her features and menacing stance to mind.
I am sure that the clinic did far more harm by creating fears and phobias in the children of my generation, than the good it did in looking after our teeth.

If I got a slip to take home for parental consent, I felt physically sick.

[Hill Walker]

Originally Posted by Margaret Pilkington

......I was just so afraid of dentistry...and it all stems back to being held down in the dentists chair in the School dentists on Cannon street....way back when children were seen and not heard.

Margaret may I ask for a little clarification, was this organised through or at the school? The reason I ask is I have no memory of any 'medical interest' in our teeth at school. I remember two visits by the 'nit nurse' who took a casual interest in our hair and significant interest in our ears, and three visits by nurses to give polio innoculations but thats all.

NB This was primary school, secondary school - nothing!

[Margaret Pilkington]

Originally Posted by Hill Walker

Margaret may I ask for a little clarification, was this organised through or at the school? The reason I ask is I have no memory of any 'medical interest' in our teeth at school. I remember two visits by the 'nit nurse' who took a casual interest in our hair and significant interest in our ears, and three visits by nurses to give polio innoculations but thats all.

NB This was primary school, secondary school - nothing!

Yes, it was through school.
The school dental service used to visit and check our teeth, the nit nurse came and checked our heads(thankfully never found any little walkers in mine or any of my brothers) and the medical service also checked our weight and I can remember having to pick marble up with my toes.
We were made to get undressed and stand in the main hall of the school in just our vests and drawers while a barrage of nurses checked our height, weight and general wellbeing. They did eye tests too.
This was at Junior school...in secondary school it was just the dentist and the nit nurse that I remember.

If problems were found then you used to get a slip of paper to take home for parental consent to treatment.
One of the girls in my class was identified as having some problem and she used to go to Cannon St clinic every week for sunlamp treatment....i was quite envious of that....not so envious of the slips from the dentists...in fact i once got one and failed to give it to my parents...thinking I would escape the dreaded clinic. No such thing the head master sent Ma a letter to dob me in.

All this happened in the early 1950's.
Surely I am not the only BOB on here to remember these things.

[DtheP47]

Originally Posted by Hill Walker

Margaret may I ask for a little clarification, was this organised through or at the school? The reason I ask is I have no memory of any 'medical interest' in our teeth at school. I remember two visits by the 'nit nurse' who took a casual interest in our hair and significant interest in our ears, and three visits by nurses to give polio innoculations but thats all.

NB This was primary school, secondary school - nothing!

Pretty sure it was organised through the school (Peel Park Juniors in my case) you had an appointment time given you to have an inspection at the Cannon Street Dental Clinic (now a Childrens Day Care centre)


Nit Nurse inspections were every year junior and a couple of times in secondary HW.
There was also a couple of visits by the district nurse in secondary for a general check up as we moved through puberty, tonsils and I think testicles checked, separate spatulas here as I recall. Maybe they just alternated the same ones for effect from pupil to pupil?

[Margaret Pilkington]

As for nits(I know this has nothing to do with toothache) my mother was religious about checking our heads every Friday night before our weekly bath(tin one, off the wall in the back yard) that and washing our hair with Derbac soap.
I only got head lice once...and that was as a first year student nurse working on E3 ward at QPH......one of the little blighters hitched a lift on me while I was bathing and delousing a tramp who had been brought in for care.
It is still a mystery as to how this head louse managed to get through the protective gear I wearing during this process......the blighter was soon located and put to death by squashing.

[Margaret Pilkington]

Yes, I was a Peel Parker too.

[Hill Walker]

Thanks for that, I was just a little curious. Things were obviously different in different parts of the country.
I always thought the polio jabs were badly organised. We were all assembled in the hall and had to go up to he stage one at a time and have the jab in public and then return to one's place in the hall. Perhaps they thought doing it that way would promote 'braveness before one's peers'. In some cases it might have worked, but in many it did not!

[Margaret Pilkington]

I never had any jabs at school.