Dental abscess

That about sums me up to be fair, or at least now it does - once the needle is done and I can't feel what is being done, then crack on - I don't really care at that point. My troubles really started after a terrible experience with a dentist when I was younger, who overdosed me with anaesthetic on one visit which resulted in me collapsing in the surgery loo, and then on a following visit all but sat on me to remove a tooth and ended up ripping it out the side of the gum leaving my gum in shreds, and then followed that up by giving me some tissue to catch the blood as I walked back to the car; the tissue barely lasted to the end of the street before it was saturated, and as I walked past my work, my boss spotted me and took me inside as I was dribbling blood all over the place and as white as a sheet. He wouldn't let me go near my car, and phoned my neighbour to come and get me and my car and take me home - I was in a proper mess, and it took months to heal. Ever since then, I have been utterly terrified.

The last time I had root canal treatment done, he did exactly that with me, and like you I threw it away; I suppose this time he just thought it wasn't that bad.

I hadn't had any grief from it before he mentioned it needed doing on a check up, and even after he booked the surgery appointment, I only had a couple of niggles - - nothing like the pain etc that you would normally associate with an infection; maybe it wasn't all that sinister until after the work was done, and that released the infection? The tooth he worked on was actually wholesome and looked fine before he began - apparently the damage was under the gum line, and the tooth innards were the problem

 

I'm not surprised you had a gagging reflex at that, and it is not an irrational thing at all. I think a lot of these experiences we have when we are younger have more impact on us than you might initially suspect.

I think things are settling a bit today - there is still swelling to the front of my jaw, but it has decreased along the side, and although still tender to the touch, it isn't nearly as bad as it was - seems like the ibuprofen is doing what it should be doing, and hopefully by tomorrow the antibiotics will join in.