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HELP! Bad Tooth Pain in Black Tooth Socket

About three years ago the back half of one of my bicuspids fell out while I was eating pretzels. I did not get it looked at. I also smoked and chewed tobacco at this time. It hurt sometimes but I would jab a toothpick above the tooth on the gum line which would cause it to bleed and this seemed to relieve the pain for a while. About three weeks ago I have been getting serious pains in my mouth to the point where they wake me out of a dead sleep. Today while I was trying to find the origin of the pain, the tooth cracked and the front portion broke off. There is still a bit of tooth in my gums. The break allowed me to see the back side of the "tooth" which is just a black hole. It looks fairly deep but I cannot tell exactly how deep. I have plans to finally go see a dentist about the issue but what precautions should I take in the mean time? I have read that swishing salt water in my mouth should help, is this true?
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Thank you very much for your answer
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Avatar universal
The severity of the pain that you're describing suggests an abscess.  Visiting a dentist and having an x-ray taken will either confirm or rule it out. You may want to chew on the opposite side but other than that there is not much that you can do in the meantime.  
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taipei, Taiwan
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