Toothache since a temporary filling was put on my tooth

[Ricardo]

Hi

My top middle premolar tooth fractured last week and left me in pain for the past several days and I went to see my dentist to have it fixed. She said that the tooth has infection inside and will need to have a root canal filling.

She then put a temporary filling on that tooth and told me to come back in one week for root canal treatment to begin. As soon as I left the clinic, the tooth started hurting really badly and now I am in agony.

I would like to know what I have to take to stop this toothache. Are there any medications or drugs that I can take. I don't think I can wait until next week for this tooth to be treated and my dentist has no earlier appointments. Please advise.

[Dr Mohsen J. Esfahani]

Thank you for your question.

It sounds like you have irreversible pulpitis in that tooth and the best way to stop the pain of pulpitis is to have pulp extipation which is a mechanical and chemical procedure which can only be done by a dentist. You can have pulp extipation carried out by our emergency dentists if you wish.

Painkillers are unlikely to work very well but as long as you have no medical contraindications to them, you can try NSAID drugs such as ibuprofen.