I went to the dentist today to get a temporary crown put in. While the dentist was drilling my tooth down, a big piece of tooth broke which caused her to slip the placement of the drill and it went into the base of tongue on the right side of my mouth. It caused an enormous gash which started to bleed profusely. I was spitting up cups and cups of blood. She put about 30 different swabs near the gash to stop the bleeding but nothing was working. I could tell she was getting concerned. Eventually, she put hydrogen peroxide on it which finally slowed down the bleeding after over an hour. She had given me several shots of novacaine. She wrote me a prescription for pain meds. She told me not to worry about the gash and said it would heal up real soon and would be sensitive for a little bit. I bought some OTC medicine to apply directly to the gash. Once the novacaine wore off, the pain became more and more intense. It is a constant stinging. Now, my ear is throbbing and stinging. My throat hurts so badly that I cannot swallow. It took me several hours to eat dinner because it was so painful. I am worried this is an infection. I called the dentist and left her a voicemail. Does anyone have any insight into what may be causing this?

OUCH!! The tongue is loaded with lots of nerves. It's going to hurt.

Infections won't happen so early.

I'm going to suggest a liquid diet such as Neutrament for a few days.

Keep the tongue clean, but don't use toothbrush or mouthwash or salt water. Stick with plain water. Don't use straws. Stick to bland foods.

Don't drink coffee or eat chocolate and don't smoke.

If you haven't done it already, you probably should have used gauze to try to stop the bleeding and to keep it somewhat dry.

To help with the pain, I'd probably take some frozen peas in a small sandwich bag and with a layer of gauze between the bag and your tongue, do cold on for 20 minutes, off for 20 minutes to reduce any swelling.

The tongue is all muscle and will heal FAST (like a tongue piercing heals in hours if it is taken out). Just stick with the pain meds and some warm salt water rinses... you get some Oragel or Ambesol to put on to numb it a bit

And I do hope that the medical treatment was done free of charge

Trust me it is NOT easy drilling in a dark wet confined moving area with a tongue flapping around.. things happen

I cringed when I read your post.. egads! Accidents happen yes but she definitely needs to give you an discount or something. Consider asking for it because I am SURE she will not OFFER. The prices these dentists charge is horrendous to begin with so when they screw up that badly, they need to compensate. Let me know how you are now.