Yesterday was a painful day. I had a toothache a couple of weeks ago and managed to secure an early appointment with my dentist. He could find nothing wrong and as the pain had subsided by then, we agreed on a “wait and see” policy.

The pain returned last Saturday but subsided after I took a painkiller in the night. I tried to make an appointment with my dentist but was told he was on holiday and couldn’t see me until Tuesday next week.

The pain returned yesterday and the first dose of painkiller failed to have any effect on it. I took a second does around midnight and fell asleep.

The tooth is not so painful this morning but the whole area if the jaw is tender and I fear that the pain will return. There seems little point in contacting my usual dentist’s surgery given the fact that they have already given me an appointment.

I decided to contact the NHS 111 service via their website, as they were very helpful with a previous emergency and found me a doctor’s appointment on the same day. This time, however, having filled in the questionnaire I was simply taken to a page showing the addressed if three local dentists, one of which is my usual one!

I have read the reviews of one of them, which seems quite good, and dealt with the reviewers on the same day. They open today at 9 am so I am going to call on them in person in the hope that they can see me and at least diagnose what the problem is.

More later!