"Out of hours emergency dental pain."

Monday at approx 1900 hours my daughter felt she was getting a tooth ache. Tuesday am she had an emergency appointment with the dentist. X Ray's showed an abscess deep below the tooth root, and the tooth needed to be removed but it was a specialist surgery and he would refer her. She was prescribed metronidazole and paracetamol for infection and pain .

Tuesday 4.45 my daughter woke in excruciating pain and pressure inside her head. I phoned the dentist and explained I couldn't leave her in this pain. They said to phone the emergency dentist that opens at 5.30 and they could help. So for 45 minutes my daughter was in such agony, laying on the floor crying and pleading I phoned 111. After a long list of procedure, questions I was able to explain she was in agony .they advised to phone the out of hours dentist. We rang and rang but no answer, in desperation we had two mobiles and a house phone all ringing the numbers the same time. Finally by 1800 hours it answered, by this time my daughter was dizzy sick and nearly passing out with pain. They agreed to see her at 19.15. I phoned Crawley hospital as it was to long to wait, was told no we can't see her we don't deal with teeth phone the emergency dentist.

We took her to the emergency dentist by 18.30 to wait for her appt. finally she was seen at 2000 hours. After more x Ray's The dentist said the only way to stop the pain was to remove the root. So they administered a numbing injection so they could operate. Then the dentist said the chair is not bolted to the floor so they couldn't lay it down as it would tip and because of health and safety they would not be able to operate. My daughter was so desperate she pleaded for help. So the dentist agreed to remove the nerve. When the dentist tapped the tooth before surgery there was so much puss that the injection had not worked fully and the operation was unable to proceed, and my daughter returned home .

One hour later the injection wore off and the pain erupted again. In desperation and feeling helpless we rang 111 again for help, I could not leave her in this pain, the abscess had no where to go and she felt like her head was going to explode. 111 went through all the procedure questions again that I answered a few hours earlier and advised a paramedic would call and to phone an out of hours dentist that covered West Sussex. This emergency out of hours that I phoned left me shocked, they all shut at 2200 hours . I asked what can I do please help us. The person on the line said I'm sorry I don't know they're all shut.

Then the 111 paramedic phoned who was wonderful I said Crawley won't see us they don't do teeth can I call an ambulance she's on the floor in agony, if I took her to esh would they see teeth pain. She said I could call an ambulance but they were on code purple and it was a 4 hour wait. I said do you think if We turned up at esh they might help us. She advised us to try. So at 12.40 weds we arrived at esh. We were told they don't do teeth but she could be seen for pain. This is all we had asked for until she could be seen by a specialist.

When seen ( very quickly) nurse imediately gave her morphine, thank goodness it worked. Dr saw her and explained they are not experts in teeth. But all we had asked for was help with pain. We went home and finally all went to sleep. At 2.30 am weds a dr from 111 phoned to help with pain relief advice. I told her thank you but we were all sorted for now. We had co codamol, naproxen, tramadol, metronidazole and a shot of morphine. The following morning still weds, she went back to the dentist who was then able to remove the top of the tooth and pack it with antibiotics as all the drugs had started to work. We all feel very traumatised after this experience, and the disbelief that if you have dental pain after 10 pm at night there is no nhs help until 9 am in the morning when the dentist opens. Also why isn,t the chair bolted to the floor if it's a health and safety issue. Please if anyone knows of anywhere we could have gone, I would like to know in case it all starts again before the specialist appointment, and removal of tooth. Can you help

A desperate mother with a daughter who is traumatised and worried it will happen again before her referral .