I confess I haven’t been a frequent visitor to a dentist since Covid. The NHS one I was with cancelled my appointment during lockdown, and then took me off their books when I didn’t contact them within six months to make a new one. Anyway, that dentist gave me a filling in 2016 that he said might last six months or a year - I wasn’t up for an extraction at that point due to my bipolar playing merry hell. Eight years on, it looks like the filling’s life has come to an end, as it’s aching, and I’m aware that the bits of actual tooth there have been breaking off, too.
So, it looks like I’ll be going private to have it out. There’s not enough tooth there for a filling. But I’m on Benapali, so what do I need to do? I presume I need to leave Benapali off, but I don’t particularly want to go a couple of weeks without benapali before I have the tooth out. What is the protocol for “emergency” dental work when on biologics, and do dentists have to do things differently? Thanks in advance for any info.
I think that if the tooth is crumbling (rotten) you have already been at risk of infection on or off of biologics. Always best to check with your rheumy as the prescriber of biologics and keep the dentist informed. Some dentists give a shot of antibiotics just before extraction. If it were me, at this point I would just stay on the biologics and not mess with your body. I had a similar happening when an upper back molar had a cavity. Dentist screwed up and partially filled it and the infection went up to my sinuses. (I changed dentist since) The extraction was no big deal, I stayed on biologics and many times a day I GENTLY swished with salt water…no infection and no issues. They used to stitch the gum closed but now tend to leave it open to heal. Just don’t swish hard or you wash the clotting away and can expose the bone (dry socket) which can create its own issues. There is my 2 cents…due to inflation it might $20…or just ignore me and listen to your professional advice. But hey, no worries, it’s all routine and you’ll do fine. And think of the money you’ll save not being able to eat for a few days!
There’s absolutely no need to leave off Benepali for a tooth extraction at all. And we don’t stop biologics for antibiotics either remember. You should be fine. I had a tooth extraction on Benepali and other than relieving myself of a nasty toothache nothing bad happened at all.
