• Dental Phobia Support

    Welcome! This is an online support group for anyone who is has a severe fear of the dentist or dental treatment. Please note that this is NOT a general dental problems or health anxiety forum! You can find a list of them here.

    Register now to access all the features of the forum.

What in the world is wrong with my mouth?

B

badmouth

Member
Joined
Jul 28, 2016
Messages
48
Location
PNW
Let me first apologize for the length of this, I want to get in all the details as they may be relevant. Also a bit of a rant. If anyone can shed some insight onto this situation I would be so thankful!

This all started about the beginning of March, when I jumped from a tricyclic that I had been taking for 35 years at a low dose. Not sure if the withdrawal from that is relevant, but I suspect it is. I noticed that the teeth in the upper left quadrant of my mouth seemed to feel "funky" at the roots and I couldn't stop bothering them. Of course "bothering them"--tapping, gnashing, pushing, tonguing etc...only made the situation worse. As this gradually become worse, after about a month I finally bought a OTC bite guard which seemed to help protect them.

I have a fair amount of dental phobia, so I put off going to the dentist for another month, until the situation was becoming unbearable. I was wearing the guard 24/7 at that point. He found an abscess at the root of #14 and I was sent to an endodontist. After starting a root canal (on a crowned tooth), he discovered the root was cracked and I was back to the dentist for a removal.

The removal went fairly well, I also got some kind of graft for the bottom of the sinus. At this point I assumed the saga would resolve--ha. But healing seemed to go very slowly, and #13 began to bother me quite a bit. My gums seemed very inflamed and I was started on amoxicillin, which did seem to help the gums clear up, but they were back to burning soon after the prescription ran out. By two weeks later I was still miserable--back to the endodontist for another exam, then back to the dentist for a bite adjustment which helped quite a bit.

But my mouth was still bothering me--all the teeth in that quadrant seemed quite unhappy at this point. Back to the dentist for a full exam, X-rays, photos, measuring pockets, rough cleaning etc...The measuring made my gums blow up for two days, it was awful. Now the dentist is recommending a deep root planing to be done in two visits. As well as a custom mouth guard at $600.

So right now I have about $1,500 into all the exams, removal, grafting, x-rays, etc..and I'm looking at about $7K for an implant. Root planing is about $1,200--I just can't afford all these costs and I have no insurance, I am desperate to avoid the root planing if at all possible due to cost and general misery I will have for several days.

At present I wake up every day and my teeth are just slightly irritated (in the one quadrant only). I'm chewing gum all day long because that is more pleasant and socially acceptable than wearing a bite guard. Despite that my teeth become more painful as the day wears on. By the end of the day they feel dreadful, my gums in that area are on fire, and I'd just like to pull the whole lot. They feel like they don't belong in my mouth, wrong shape, size etc.. I have to take a painkiller to go to sleep, the cycle continues...I can't figure out--am I bothering the teeth because they are irritated (and why?), or do I have uncontrollable bruxism (due to withdrawal?) that is keeping my teeth and gums irritated constantly?

Cosmetically my teeth look fine, very white and straight and well proportioned. I'm 53 but in very good physical shape, no medical issues at all and no medications now. My diet is excellent--low-carb paleoish, very little sugar or grain, lots of vegetables, no caffeine, alcohol or smoking. I would go grain-free in a heartbeat if I knew that would help. I brush with a sonicare and use a water-pik almost every night.

What is going on with my mouth? My dentist doesn't seem to have any good answers. I can't continue on like this, the constant misery, there has to be something I can do to make this situation better! Any suggestions or ideas are very much appreciated.
 
I don't have much time to type (sorry), but I just want to say that some of those prices are CRAZY high. I go to a private dentist group in an expensive area and I don't pay prices like that. I HIGHLY recommend that if you are going to get the work done, that you get some second opinions (especially about prices) - doesn't mean you can't go to this dentist, but at least show them what other price offers you're getting.
 
Yes, I definitely am seeing that his prices are very high. He has an excellent reputation, endodontist considers him one of the best in town. I should probably get another opinion and consultation, but it is hard with dental phobia, and having no idea where to start to look for another dentist. I've had my teeth cleaned there for years and part of me just wants to pay the cost.
 
Okay, I've found some information which could be relevant and a name--Atypical Odontalgia. This really sounds a lot like what I am experiencing. (hope it is okay to post links here)

https://maaom.memberclicks.net/inde...d=22:patient-condition-information&Itemid=120

http://www.rdhmag.com/articles/prin...-vivid-imagination-during-diagnosis.htmlpical

The first line of treatment for this is the drug that I just got off of! So I am thinking it would not be a stretch to think that withdrawal from this drug would kick up symptoms like this. I'm certainly not going back on it at this point. There must be some other way to deal with this.

Once again, if anyone has any ideas that would be great.
 
I've just popped in to say hi, after you posted in my thread. It's a very frustrating possibility, isn't it? I have spent a long time trying to tell dentists that I think there could be nerve involvement, and one finally started to agree with me the other day! I'm now waiting to see if my extraction has made a difference, or if it starts up again.

Good luck with your journey for answers!
 
Thanks for the support MJ--I don't think you can appreciate this until you've been through it!

Just an update on my situation--since I posted this, I've had the root planing, #13 was going bad, so I had a RCT on that one. A huge filling fell out of the tooth a week later, so I had to go ahead with the crown, thus I had a temporary bridge put in. Permanent bridge is in, just waiting on money to pay for it!

But--my teeth still hurt! To the point where I'm not sleeping well, and taking oxycodone now and then to get through. Last night and today were bad. Wish I knew where to go to get some answers.
 
I have a very similar probelm to yours, and it is frustrating!

Personally, i believe it is due to nerve damage , possibly due to anesthetic injection or when the tooth is being extracted. For me, i do get a slight pain feeling in my left ear at random times, but are very rare. Same for my teeth of my lower jaw.

Since our nerves of the oral cavities are connected to other parts such as ear, jaw etc, all of the problems might be related to the nerves. Hopefully you will feel better soon!
 
I have a very similar probelm to yours, and it is frustrating!

Personally, i believe it is due to nerve damage , possibly due to anesthetic injection or when the tooth is being extracted. For me, i do get a slight pain feeling in my left ear at random times, but are very rare. Same for my teeth of my lower jaw.

I've never had any pain in my ear, but I have had a very mild pain sensation in the lower jaw (same side) at times, especially when things seem to "flare up". Kind of a feeling of "tightness". If you get any answers, please let me know!
 
Just wanted to post another update, in case anyone out there is going through something similar. This has become a dreadful experience, and getting answers has been very difficult.

I had a bad flare up which proves to me that the pain is at least somewhat neurogenic. I decided recently to be more aggressive with pain management. I noticed that ibuprofen seemed to give me a couple of hours of relief, then the pain was a bit more severe when it returned. Stupidly I purchased some naproxen (Alleve, another NSAID) and took two. Bad mistake--24 hours later and I'm still in quite a bit of pain!

The pain is very obvious now--an aching/ burning sensation that goes along the insides of BOTH the upper and lower molar areas, and along the edge of my tongue! After a bit of research, there apparently is a nerve branch (buccal) that runs in these areas. It's pretty obvious there is nothing wrong with my lower jaw, or my tongue, so the pain has to be neurogenic.

Acetominphen is somewhat effective if the pain is just at an irritation level, but doesn't help much when it is strong. Opiods are fairly effective at making life bearable at a strong dose, but I don't have much and I'm afraid of dependence. NSAIDS make the pain worse. Capsaicin works for a bit, not long. So not a lot of great options.

At this point I think I will be going to the dentist and getting a referral to an orofacial pain specialist.
 
I've gotten my new permanent bridge, and really like it. Things have improved, but still having pain in both the upper and lower jaw. My dentist now agrees that it is likely neuropathic pain, and I've got a referral to a dental pain clinic at a teaching school not too far away. Hopefully I can get some answers soon!
 
I am going through something similar now. I have horrible pain in about 6 teeth on the left side of my mouth. Mine might be caused by a bad bite and TMJ. I really hope all my teeth aren't going bad at once! I am getting a TMJ mouth piece made to balance my bite the first week in December. Hoping I can last that long! Also hoping it settles down all this tooth pain! Maybe this is what is happening....a bad bite.
 
Oh wow, this sounds like me! I'm curious about the nerve corollation. For me the pain is located in the jaw below bottom molars but interesting after reading your thread I'm wondering if it could be related to the extraction I had of the tooth next to the molars which at the time needed 13 needles of Novocain to numb the area because it was infected when they pulled it. It's exactly in the area of the pain. My husband says it could be phantom pain? Any thoughts on this? Could a combination of receding gums on the molars and the missing tooth trauma possible be causing this shooting dull pain that keeps me up at night..so frustrated and tired of this pain
 
Back
Top