Toothache is a pain - getting treatment in these unpleasant times is agony.

I just spend the last four days in some considerable pain (occasionally fold-up wish the world would bugger off type pain) from toothache.

Thanks to anti-covid measures, my dentist wasn't able to take me as an emergency examination until earlier today; no other dentists, private or NHS, could help, they're all in the same damn boat, and that ruddy Rib (Rigid Inflatable Boat) is just about swamped in the wake of Covid.

By the grace of whatever your Deity might be, I got seen earlier (thanks to a short-notice early morning cancellation), and I'm now on antibiotics (ruddy great horse pills of 500mg Amoxicillin, 3 times per day for five days), which have made a MASSIVE improvement in things already.

The pain was a result of an abscess, of course. The resulting infection-caused swelling in my face was not at all nice, but is going down nicely, even now, just over twelve hours post-exam.

I've got to make return visits for longer-lasting and more permanent treatment (which is going to cost a packet, as there aren't any NHS dentists available around here), but I have the satisfaction of knowing that my gnasher-basher centre is now part of the Portman Group (https://www.portmandentalcare.com/), and has a wide range of resources available to it without need for referral to other firms/practices.

I still don't like the idea of going to a Dentist (I'm sure Torquemada was a trainee gnasher-smasher), but at least I know the one I see is a respected one.