Feel better soon.

Get some rest and best wishes.

Pain of any kind is not good for concentration. Take care of your whole self, we will be here for the long haul.

Tooth pain is rough because I can focus on is the pain. Ibuprofen just takes a little bit of the edge off, but it doesn't get rid of the pain. And I've got hydrocodone from my surgery still and I try not to take that. But it gets to the point where I can't handle the throbbing anymore, so you gotta take one. And now the pain goes away, but I can't concentrate. I find myself drifting off into la-la land. Like yesterday, all I wanted to do was sleep all day. So, I got an appointment tomorrow afternoon with the surgeon. Hopefully he's able to fix this thing. I think I have an abscess forming on my gum right where the surgery site was. So maybe they can drain that and do something better. They've got me on amoxicillin, but I've been on it since the surgery and it's not helping. I can do little short bursts of work, but trying to do anything long that involves some focus is just beyond me right now. I might try to record a video today, but we'll see. I've been trying to re-watch all the original Star Trek episodes, but yesterday I started one and I fell asleep during it. I woke up and it was three episodes later. I don't know what happened there.

Teeth nerves are a bitch. I cracked a tooth on a popcorn kernel. It ached for months, finally had to have it pulled.
Even then it hurt like hell, because supposedly the numbing shot only works so much when there's an infection.
I've had migraines, broken bones, huge hematomas and even been shot (not as a perp). None hurt as bad as that dang tooth.

Rick, some advice from an old ER doc... Stay ahead of the pain. If your stomach can handle it, take the ibuprofen on a schedule, whether you think you need it or not. Same for the hydrocodone if ibuprofen doesn't cut it. If you wait until the pain is bad, it's too late; the medicine will not be as effective. And definitely follow up with the surgeon, as this is not a normal course.

I had a lower molar crack a few weeks ago. Now I have to wait till the end of July to start the crowning process. That was bad enough.  Dental assistant said they MAY need to do a root canal.  Fortunately it's not needed at this time.  Unfortunately, the implant done on the front lower area several months ago didn’t take. I said on the checkup it still hurt and I was spitting blood up from time to time.  When my body rejected it, I was told “Sometimes this happens. Good news you have plenty of bone to work with. See you in September.”  I’m thinking GREAT more bad news “It’s going to hurt AGAIN for a period of…” (and it better not be months). I was taking Ibuprofen like it was candy at one point of the recovery.

Just a note to those (not Richard's condition) what happened to my dad years ago. He had a "tooth ache" for months and months. The old family dentist kept drilling and what not. Finally, dad went to a new "young" dentist. He took a quick x-ray and declared it was a sinus infection that worked its way down into the bone and tooth. A week of antibiotics, the pain was gone, but the tooth had already been "destroyed".

Another note, after I cracked my tooth and had a root canal that only worked temporarily, I did some studying. It seems that a tooth is a "living organ" filled with blood vessels, nerves and tiny "hole tubes" throughout. A healthy tooth will have an immune response to invading bacteria in these little holes. A dead tooth, from a root canal, can suffer bacteria invasions, which can spread to the jaw and become systemic. I'm not a dentist, but many dentists are now saying a root canal isn't a medically sound approach. In fact, one dentist sounded this alarm almost a century ago! Just saying.

2 things

Keep using towel wrapped ice packs to reduce swelling and pain.

Chloraseptic sore throat spray also helps pain relief for gums and teeth.