I've posted a few threads here under a different name (I'm away from
home, posting through Google instead of via Outlook Express on my own
computer) about my phobias as far as dental procedures that stem from
what has been a problem in getting my mouth dead enough, especially
when there's drilling involved. My dentist, who I've been seeing for
30+ years, and I are doing a lot better along those lines, the last
few times I've been have been a breeze. He's taking a few more pains
with his injections and is making sure to really pour on the water
when doing fillings. (We have determined that the biggest factor
that's giving me problems with the drilling is heat.)

Anyway, I have to go there in the morning, probably to have an
extraction done, and I'm counting down the minutes looking forward to
sitting in that chair, because this time I really don't care what he
does to me, anything is preferable to this pain.

Although I'm paying for not taking his advice and getting this tooth
pulled as a proactive measure, because he told me a year ago that this
tooth needed to come out. It's a wisdom tooth, I'm not sure exactly
which one, but it's an upper one on my left. The problem is that it
has been moving slightly when I bite down. It's caused some issues
with the teeth below it (had to have a filling repaired) and the
biggest issue is that food, etc., kept getting constantly impacted
around it, I was having to floss seemingly all the time.

My dentist said because of the tooth moving and some other factors, he
would recommend an extraction instead of trying to salvage the tooth
with a root canal.

However, it was not giving me any pain or anything, so I wasn't
exactly in a hurry to have a tooth extracted although I had pretty
much committed to do it before year's end (before my deductible kicked
in again on my insurance).

Big mistake ... it started getting a bit tender on Monday ( I recall
biting down on something over the weekend and it feeling really weird
and funny, that probably triggered it). It was more tender on Tuesday,
so I called my dentist and canceled the cleaning appointment I had for
Wednesday and made an appointment for next Tuesday to get the tooth
taken care of. I thought I could tough it out if the pain didn't get
any worse, but it got horribly worse Tuesday night, I woke up in agony
two hours after taking two Ibuprofen (200 mg each, total 400 mg). The
pain was radiating up into my jawbone and almost to my ear, and
actually down into my lower jaw even though I'm sure the problem is
that upper tooth.

I called the dentist back today and he's going to work me in tomorrow
a.m., plus he called me in some Tylenol/Codeine and some Erythromycin.

And I'm sorry for the long lead-in but I'm getting around to my
point ... the Tylenol/Codeine is not really taking the pain away any
better than the Ibuprofen. I have heard that if you alternate the two,
at two-hour intervals, you can get better results. Is that the case,
or should I just stick to one or the other? Thanks in advance for any
help.