Well, kebaldwin - the weird thing is that no one, including the dentist and doctor suspected that this was a tooth problem.

It was my MOM who was insisting that I get to the dentist, and saying that people can have horrible infections and pain, without actually having a toothache.

I'd have to say that it was because of her that I even went to the dentist today in the first place. She was so convincing on the phone last night, and then of course, phones me today..."Have you made the appointment yet?"

Meanwhile my own doctor says, "Oh, I don't think it could be tooth related, especially if you're not having tooth pain"

And even the dentist..."Well are you having tooth pain?" and me saying, "Well no, not really" and him saying, "Well it's not likely that this is a dental problem".

Meanwhile Mom's calling incessantly from Vancouver ...."Did you make the appt. yet?"

I basically made the dental appt. because of her calling me repeatedly.

Um...I owe her ten bucks now.



And apparently so do my dentist and doctor

Get the tooth dealt with kebaldwin. The only reason my Mom even knew to suggest this is because my stepdad has had numerous infections and kept getting antibiotics without actually going to the dentist - he didn't want to spend the $$$ for a root canal. Eventually, my stepdad got the offending tooth pulled (which is much cheaper than a root canal) and has not had any infections since.

When there's an abcess tooth - the patient has the option to have the thing pulled out entirely (couple hundred $ at the most) or have a root canal (which will save the tooth and is around $1000 w/o insurance, or $170 or so with insurance). My dentist said, "Well, you can get this root canal fixed, which I think is a good idea or you can have the tooth removed."

Since I have the insurance, I've opted for the root canal thingy...not looking forward to it though.

But in any case, having the tooth pulled will work as well, which is what my stepdad did.

Hope you get yours taken care of. My stepfather has zero pain, and zero infection now that he finally got his own tooth problem dealt with. My Mom was telling me he was avoiding it for about three years, and kept on getting antibiotics, when finally - his doctors said, "you need to get this tooth dealt with" or something along those lines. So he goes and does it (gets it pulled I mean) - and no problems ever since. Might be worth your while.

Thanks again for the support and information - I really appreciate it.

Sara