So I had one of the molars in my lower jaw pulled out on Thursday afternoon, as it was badly chipped and rotten, resulting in a very painful toothache. That night I wound up at the after hours GP due to severe pain, she gave me some painkillers on the spot and a script for panadeine forte. Friday was mostly okay, woke up Saturday morning with a quite swollen cheek near the extraction site and a fair bit of pain, so rang the dentist - he said it was most likely irritation of the jawbone as it was a very large tooth with long roots and quite hard to pull out. Should settle reasonably quickly though.

Saturday night found me with even the stronger painkillers wearing off and having little effect to the point I was on the brink of heading back to emergency, or trying to find an emergency dentist as I wasn't coping with the level of pain I was in - but managed to get by bringing the next dose of painkillers forward a couple of hours and going to bed. Woke up this morning and have been quite okay during the day, even managing to wean off the daytime painkillers. But it seems it comes back with a vengeance at night time - sends me scurrying back to the panadeine forte and right now has just woken me at 3am from a sound sleep...

I'm so sick of being in pain with this tooth! How long should it normally take for this to settle down? I am going back to the dentist tomorrow afternoon to get it checked (was the only time he could fit me in) but is it normal for it to be more painful at night, and if so, for how long?