A
anxietyorama
Member
- Joined
- Aug 3, 2009
- Messages
- 28
- Location
- NYC
Long and complicated story here...
I am a 24 y/o female otherwise healthy + active female... I was on tetracyclines as an infant and have a family history of underdeveloped molars... My upper left molars have always been messed up; 2 of them were impacted baby teeth that I got pulled at age 12 and the adult teeth in their place were only 'half teeth' and had weak enamel. The rest of my teeth are strong and only have 2 cavities in the rest of my mouth; #13-#15 have had cavities basically every time I have gone to the dentist since age 13 despite excellent oral hygeine. I am always quite terrified of the dentist as I am apparently not especially responsive to novocaine and usually need more shots / different areas and I have had problems with 'feeling it' during procedures and this past year has made the terror unbearable.
In Nov '08 I cracked 13 on an almond and was told to wait until February for an appointment (one of the reasons I switched dentists after this.) By December I developed horrible shooting pains and immediately went to an endodontist and had a root canal performed on the tooth and was quite relieved as it was painless + went smoothly. However when getting the crown put on in March, the dentist discovered a cavity in #15 and began to drill and found it too close to the nerve and sent me for another root canal that day. This one also was fine, but when I returned to the dentist for the crown, she found a 'tiny' cavity in #14 and drilled/filled it with amalgam and put a metal crown on #15. As soon as the anaesthetic wore off I was in mindblowing crippling pain, unable to speak, swallow, or move without pain. She said it was just the bite (seemed unlikely) and sent me back to the endodontist to check it out. He gave me a ton of novocaine and filed down the metal crown and did more x-rays, said the filling in #14 was deep but no infection, might have been pressure or from the metal touching the amalgam (?). Felt better afterwards and got the permanent crown on the tooth in April.
However in early July I developed persistent throbbing in between 14+15 which developed into severe pain with both #14 and #15 highly sensitive to any pressure... went to a new dentist, she decided that the filling in #14 was infected, as the x-ray showed a small infection and the root canal in #15 looked "perfect" and she suspected that #14 was making #15 hurt. When she began to drill found I was not numb. The pain was absolutely unbearable and I was crying in the chair. She said it was a 'hot tooth' and gave me 5 days of amoxicillin; I returned and was still unable to get numb but was enough for her to remove the old filling and clean out the tooth a bit. 7 more days amoxicillin and returned for a root canal; this went okay until they went to put the gutta percha in, which was the most unbearable searing pain i have ever felt, despite being on laughing gas and 5 shots of novocaine. The dentist said this was inevitable because the tissue around was so inflamed and that there were a number of worst-case-scenarios, including that my tooth roots were extremely extremely deep and that I seemed to have far more nerve tissue in the tooth + area than most people do. I had 5 more days amoxicillin and was told to come back in 2 weeks; I remained sore but felt steadily better until 4 days ago when I began having throbbing in the area again and both #14 and #15 felt sensitive to pressure.
I called the dentist and she put me on Clindamycin now and I am returning tomorrow morning, but I am so terrified I cannot work. The throbbing has abated slightly but the area is still sensitive/sore and all I can think about is whether or not it hurts or is going to hurt again or if I will need more work done. The bills are so expensive and I feel like I have been in pain on and off for a year. I can't sleep because of how scared I am and am crying almost every day... I have lost substantial weight in the last month because I have been largely unable to eat because of all the work and my constantly being in pain/ill/unable to talk/eat/kiss/etc is affecting my relationship with my boyfriend and my fear is making it difficult to concentrate at work.
I keep reading worst-case scenarios on the internet and am so terrified of future pain or more unbearably painful procedures and thousands of dollars of bills. Is it possible that the root canal in #15 went bad and I will need an apicoectomy or implants? If the root canal in #14 was successful and the other ones are also good, why am I still in some pain and why did it hurt so much getting it done? Is this going to be messed up for the rest of my life and am I always going to have problems with these teeth? I hate that I keep going to dentists and "everything seems fine" and then a few months later something is wrong again; it's made me lose a lot of faith in the treatments and I'm terrified.
Any advice or ideas about what could be wrong or basically any reassurance that this can actually be taken care of 100%? I am afraid this cannot be taken care of and I am going to live with issues and pain in these teeth for years to come, as well as the thousands of dollars of debt....
I am a 24 y/o female otherwise healthy + active female... I was on tetracyclines as an infant and have a family history of underdeveloped molars... My upper left molars have always been messed up; 2 of them were impacted baby teeth that I got pulled at age 12 and the adult teeth in their place were only 'half teeth' and had weak enamel. The rest of my teeth are strong and only have 2 cavities in the rest of my mouth; #13-#15 have had cavities basically every time I have gone to the dentist since age 13 despite excellent oral hygeine. I am always quite terrified of the dentist as I am apparently not especially responsive to novocaine and usually need more shots / different areas and I have had problems with 'feeling it' during procedures and this past year has made the terror unbearable.
In Nov '08 I cracked 13 on an almond and was told to wait until February for an appointment (one of the reasons I switched dentists after this.) By December I developed horrible shooting pains and immediately went to an endodontist and had a root canal performed on the tooth and was quite relieved as it was painless + went smoothly. However when getting the crown put on in March, the dentist discovered a cavity in #15 and began to drill and found it too close to the nerve and sent me for another root canal that day. This one also was fine, but when I returned to the dentist for the crown, she found a 'tiny' cavity in #14 and drilled/filled it with amalgam and put a metal crown on #15. As soon as the anaesthetic wore off I was in mindblowing crippling pain, unable to speak, swallow, or move without pain. She said it was just the bite (seemed unlikely) and sent me back to the endodontist to check it out. He gave me a ton of novocaine and filed down the metal crown and did more x-rays, said the filling in #14 was deep but no infection, might have been pressure or from the metal touching the amalgam (?). Felt better afterwards and got the permanent crown on the tooth in April.
However in early July I developed persistent throbbing in between 14+15 which developed into severe pain with both #14 and #15 highly sensitive to any pressure... went to a new dentist, she decided that the filling in #14 was infected, as the x-ray showed a small infection and the root canal in #15 looked "perfect" and she suspected that #14 was making #15 hurt. When she began to drill found I was not numb. The pain was absolutely unbearable and I was crying in the chair. She said it was a 'hot tooth' and gave me 5 days of amoxicillin; I returned and was still unable to get numb but was enough for her to remove the old filling and clean out the tooth a bit. 7 more days amoxicillin and returned for a root canal; this went okay until they went to put the gutta percha in, which was the most unbearable searing pain i have ever felt, despite being on laughing gas and 5 shots of novocaine. The dentist said this was inevitable because the tissue around was so inflamed and that there were a number of worst-case-scenarios, including that my tooth roots were extremely extremely deep and that I seemed to have far more nerve tissue in the tooth + area than most people do. I had 5 more days amoxicillin and was told to come back in 2 weeks; I remained sore but felt steadily better until 4 days ago when I began having throbbing in the area again and both #14 and #15 felt sensitive to pressure.
I called the dentist and she put me on Clindamycin now and I am returning tomorrow morning, but I am so terrified I cannot work. The throbbing has abated slightly but the area is still sensitive/sore and all I can think about is whether or not it hurts or is going to hurt again or if I will need more work done. The bills are so expensive and I feel like I have been in pain on and off for a year. I can't sleep because of how scared I am and am crying almost every day... I have lost substantial weight in the last month because I have been largely unable to eat because of all the work and my constantly being in pain/ill/unable to talk/eat/kiss/etc is affecting my relationship with my boyfriend and my fear is making it difficult to concentrate at work.
I keep reading worst-case scenarios on the internet and am so terrified of future pain or more unbearably painful procedures and thousands of dollars of bills. Is it possible that the root canal in #15 went bad and I will need an apicoectomy or implants? If the root canal in #14 was successful and the other ones are also good, why am I still in some pain and why did it hurt so much getting it done? Is this going to be messed up for the rest of my life and am I always going to have problems with these teeth? I hate that I keep going to dentists and "everything seems fine" and then a few months later something is wrong again; it's made me lose a lot of faith in the treatments and I'm terrified.
Any advice or ideas about what could be wrong or basically any reassurance that this can actually be taken care of 100%? I am afraid this cannot be taken care of and I am going to live with issues and pain in these teeth for years to come, as well as the thousands of dollars of debt....
