Definitely tooth pain is the worst. I've spent many a night in absolute screaming agony. I found the best remedy was just to keep upright and busy, skip the sleep. It seems that lying down increases the blood pressure in the head just enough to make it hurt. I find when the teeth are acting up, any time the blood pressure goes up, the teeth throb in time to the pulse. Physical activity can set it off. Stay upright, don't exert yourself, and keep your mind busy on other things, pain is ultimately a mental thing, the less you think about it the less it hurts.
Over time with enough root canals and extractions, eventually there will be no live teeth left and they will not hurt anymore. (I'm almost there and rarely get the screaming pain now.) God bless the dentists, they have literally saved my life more than once by extracting or doing root canals on infected teeth, after a round of anti-biotics. I know of at least one person killed by tooth infection in my circle of friends, its serious business.
Though if you have any holes in live teeth that go deep, stay off the sugar, it feeds the bacteria that produce the acid that set off the nerve action potential. (Besides the fact that its the sugar in the first place that feeds the bacteria that produce the acid that destabilises the hydroxyapatite of the enamel that allows decay to start in the pulp... no sugar and fluoride rinses help stop this as fluoride replaces the hydroxy ions in the enamel apatite that are susceptible to acid.) If its infected sometimes sqeezing the pus out of the gums can help relieve the pressure. (ick)
Nothing feels better than an extraction. Better than a good crap, better than sex.
Still looking forward to getting dentures,
Bonk