So, long story. I had a root canal tooth pulled last Wednesday. They initially thought it may be infected, but were less sure after seeing the second X-ray. They pulled it anyway, and it was a traumatic pull (difficult, took nearly 90 minutes to complete).

I was okay after that... until I woke up at 3AM on Thursday with shivers (in spite of being warm to the touch) and light-headedness. Later that day, I called the dentist and asked his advice. He seemed to disregard it, but acknowledged there may be an infection. He prescribed me Amoxicillin (and Tylenol-3). I went home and basically spent the last two days lying in bed, taking my medicine as prescribed, and sleeping when I could. Some of my symptoms (temperature shifts, flop sweat, some of the light-headedness) improved. I threw up a couple times in the first 24 hours of the antibiotics, but haven't been nauseous since.

Except my symptoms are still fluctuating (or in the case of my faster than usual heart-beat, haven't changed), and now I'm sore in some areas - most worryingly, a very faint pain in my neck. My biggest fear is Bacterial Meningitis. Although I expect I would be much sicker after 4 days than I am (I'm not exactly rushing to the hospital), I guess my question is: Would standard Amoxicillin improve ANY of my symptoms if this were serious? Should I be more or less concerned that I'm improving, but not consistently?

You should run the course of Amoxicillin (10 days?) before anticipating serious conditions. Use a thermometer, drink plenty, and rest. Follow the procedure for rinsing and brushing the socket carefully. A lot of people are afraid to brush the gum, but you need to remove dead tissue. Your neck pain would ordinarily be muscle pain. It's impossible to make judgments online, of course.

I too have had difficult extractions, until I went to an oral surgeon. For the higher price it's worth it. A minute per tooth, little pain, no complications.

This is a bit tricky. It's hard to tell without an actual exam if the infection has spread or if you even have one at all (you could just be sick from something else).
As far as an answer goest I totally agree with Joy, keep an eye on the site where you got it pulled and finish the antibiotics so long as you don't get worse or have any other major problems.

If you develop a headache with the neck pain (or it hurts to touch your chin to your neck or you can't perform that movement at all) or if you have a fever then I would suggest going to see a medical doctor before you finish the antibiotics.

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Originally Posted by Gernald

This is a bit tricky. It's hard to tell without an actual exam if the infection has spread or if you even have one at all (you could just be sick from something else).
As far as an answer goest I totally agree with Joy, keep an eye on the site where you got it pulled and finish the antibiotics so long as you don't get worse or have any other major problems.

If you develop a headache with the neck pain (or it hurts to touch your chin to your neck or you can't perform that movement at all) or if you have a fever then I would suggest going to see a medical doctor before you finish the antibiotics.

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I do have a small headache, but I have no pain whatsoever touching my chin to my chest.

I'm currently running a little hot (99.2F). I would say that I definitely did have fever symptoms, and that they've dissipated somewhat over the last 30-36 hours.

The gum is a little swollen and painful to the touch (particularly the front of the gum). It's healing already, but there's still some dead flesh, in spite of the rinsing. I haven't really attempted to brush the gum, as that sounds painful and it wasn't on the dentists list of instructions. I guess I should do it anyway?

I'd be careful about brushing it especially if they had to stitch it up, but I think that diluted mouthwash (1/2 water, 1/2 mouthwash) would be okay and since it's been a few days gently brushing the area so long as it's not too painful and won't open up the wound or make it start bleeding.
If it does start to bleed or anything like that leave it alone and just rinse the area out.

Why not call the dentist for a recheck? It will ease your mind. And, do not brush the gum area. You could disturb the blood clot.

My trusted oral surgeon's instructions do insist on brushing the gum, and it doesn't hurt.
If the gum is red, no - that's infection. If white, dead tissue. If pink, it's healing anyway.

I am not sure about any dentist who takes 90 minutes but as I said, I have not had good extractions with dentists. Oral surgeons go through all those extra years of training for a reason.

I do agree with teach, do not brush the gum area, the clot can't be dislodged for a very good reason... healing. No drinking with straws and if you smoke, don't.