6 Month old filling hurting.

[AnxietyGuy]

Hi guys,

I'm a 20 year old male and from the UK. I suffer from health anxiety so this forum seems like a great place to get some reassurance and also to get some questions answered.

6-7 Months ago I had a filling on 2 teeth at the front of my mouth, I don't know the names of all the teeth but I did a google and the teeth I had fillings on were Central incisor and Lateral incisor.

I needed quite a big filling, to cut a long story short they were all filled and looked decent, however after I got the filling done, the teeth became extremley sensitive and I had trouble drinking anything cold. When I drank cold stuff, I'd get a really sharp pain in the tooth.

Yesterday, out of the blue, the lateral incisor tooth which has a filling has really started hurting, on and off for about 5 mins of intense pain each time.

This morning, the tooth feels really strange now, when I bight on it gentle it gives quite a strange sensation that I can't really describe.

Could it be that I might have nocked the filling slightly? When I had it done my dentist did say I might need root canal on it sometime.

I really want to avoid more treatment because I have panic attacks everytime I'm at the dentist.

The first time I had dental work done to have a tooth extracted 2-3 years ago I had a huge panic attack. It was right after my dentist numbed me with anestetic, I started to go all shakey and my heart rate was really fast, I also felt really dizzy. My dentist was really nice and she said it was probabaly the adrenaline in the needle, she said for my next visits she wouldn't include adrenaline and the next times I had treatment I was pretty calm and I didn't get the panicy episodes again.

Sorry for the long post and I hope I haven't confused you to much.

Any info would be greatly appreciated.

 

[AnxietyGuy]

Anyone?

Has anyone else been shakey/dizzy after having shots at the dentist? I know the last time I had them without adrenaline I was fine but I fear if I need to see my dentist again I'll have the shakey/dizzy spells after the injections.

I have a fear of having low blood sugar/diabetes for some reason and I hope this isn't causing the shakes/dizzyness when at the dentist.

My tooth with the filling still feels strange, if it's still feeling weird within a week it'd be best to see the dentist?

 

[Dave48]

Hi Anxietyguyi have the same problem lying down in the dentist chair i go dizzy my appointment with dentist is 11 March.


Dave.

 

[AnxietyGuy]

The tooth is throbbing now although there's not much pain. It hurts really bad when I press on it or bite down on it. The other teeth around it hurt when I bight down on them also.

What could this be? Don't plan on seeing the dentist till another week or so.

Cheers

 

[Dave48]

Hi it could be like i had years ago the tooth could be pushing on the nerve thus making it painful.



Dave.

 

[brit]

The tooth is throbbing now although there's not much pain. It hurts really bad when I press on it or bite down on it. The other teeth around it hurt when I bight down on them also.

What could this be? Don't plan on seeing the dentist till another week or so.

Cheers

Sounds like you need to see your dentist a bit sooner, ask for an emergency appt. They may just give you antibiotics as a first step. What you are describing doesn't sound like sth which will settle down with time, it needs to TLC from your dentist to sort it out.
If it needs a root canal, don't worry the front teeth are the easiest to do these and you can ask for the non-epi local again although it may need to be topped up as it doesn't last as long without the epi I understand. Don't believe the horror stories about root canals, most are painless. Best wishes, toothache's no fun - get it sorted as soon as you can.

 

[AnxietyGuy]

Sounds like you need to see your dentist a bit sooner, ask for an emergency appt. They may just give you antibiotics as a first step. What you are describing doesn't sound like sth which will settle down with time, it needs to TLC from your dentist to sort it out.
If it needs a root canal, don't worry the front teeth are the easiest to do these and you can ask for the non-epi local again although it may need to be topped up as it doesn't last as long without the epi I understand. Don't believe the horror stories about root canals, most are painless. Best wishes, toothache's no fun - get it sorted as soon as you can.

Thanks for the reply, I appreciate it.

What does it sound like to you? Maybe an abcess? I'm fearing the worse. I did have one before on the tooth that needed extraction, it was very painful but the extraction was nice and easy. I can't help but feel terrified about having low blood sugar/dizzy spells on the chair though, I have a fear of passing out!

I've also got pain behind my right eye when I move it in a certain direction, I've had the eye pain before but I'm not sure if it's linked with the toothache in anyway.

I just took some paracetomol and it took the toothache off a bit, it was beggining to get really intense!

 

[letsconnect]

Hi , the amount of epinephrine in local anaesthetic is tiny compared to the amount your own body produces when you're stressed or anxious. Your experience was most likely due to the panic attack rather than the epi (unless your dentist accidentally injected into a blood vessel, which can also cause the reaction you've described. This is quite rare though - it's easy for a dentist to check that they're not injecting into a blood vessel by aspirating first).

There's a very good book by Dave Carbonell called "The Panic Attack Workbook - A Guided Program for Beating the Panic Trick" which is available on Amazon. Panic and anxiety rarely get better on their own (in fact quite the opposite) and tackling this now may save you a lot of distress in the future .

It's impossible to say over the internet whether the tooth needs to be root-treated or not, so I won't venture any guesses! Please let us know though what transpires when you see your dentist

 

[brit]

I can't help but feel terrified about having low blood sugar/dizzy spells on the chair though, I have a fear of passing out!

As Letsconnect says only a dentist can say for sure whether a root canal is needed..a redo of the filling may be sufficient, if the nerve will settle down after.
In my experience an abscess brewing is likely to involve pulsing/throbbing sensations and the tooth feeling as if it is a little high in your bite....I found the pain was not particularly severe just annoying but this was probably because the nerve was practically dead (this was in a tooth with an old amalgam filling which had been replaced with composite more recently and it wasn't a front tooth)
....however what I really wanted to say was that I experienced feeling faint during treatment about 20 minutes into an appointment a few years ago....I had gone to an early morning appt on an empty stomach....I felt lightheaded and everything seemed to go into slow motion, it was during a break in treatment and then I came right back (I don't think the staff even noticed) and everything seemed normal again...it wasn't unpleasant but I reckon it was a blood sugar problem; and it hasn't happened again since always eating breakfast or lunch before appts.
So make sure you don't have local on an empty stomach if at all possible...I know it can be hard if fear stops you from having an appetite...I tend to be a breakfast skipper anyway lol.
This happened to me even though I wasn't afraid of this particular dentist or the procedure at all.

If you did pass out, at least you wouldn't fall and hurt yourself because of being comfortably (or not so comfortably) reclined....it wouldn't be the end of the world, they'd give you oxygen and a sugary drink probably and then re schedule if it seemed inappropriate to continue or you didn't want to.

 

[AnxietyGuy]

As Letsconnect says only a dentist can say for sure whether a root canal is needed..a redo of the filling may be sufficient, if the nerve will settle down after.
In my experience an abscess brewing is likely to involve pulsing/throbbing sensations and the tooth feeling as if it is a little high in your bite....I found the pain was not particularly severe just annoying but this was probably because the nerve was practically dead (this was in a tooth with an old amalgam filling which had been replaced with composite more recently and it wasn't a front tooth)
....however what I really wanted to say was that I experienced feeling faint during treatment about 20 minutes into an appointment a few years ago....I had gone to an early morning appt on an empty stomach....I felt lightheaded and everything seemed to go into slow motion, it was during a break in treatment and then I came right back (I don't think the staff even noticed) and everything seemed normal again...it wasn't unpleasant but I reckon it was a blood sugar problem; and it hasn't happened again since always eating breakfast or lunch before appts.
So make sure you don't have local on an empty stomach if at all possible...I know it can be hard if fear stops you from having an appetite...I tend to be a breakfast skipper anyway lol.
This happened to me even though I wasn't afraid of this particular dentist or the procedure at all.

Thanks for the replys guys, I really appreciate it.

Hopefully the tooth can be refilled, without to much hassle. I'd certainly prefer it to be refilled rather than have an abcess though, they are horrible and obviously I'd be really paranoid about losing one of my front teeth. But from how you described the abcess, it sounds like I've got one forming.

How would they combat this if it was an abcess? Antibiotics and then root canal treatment? I'm very paranoid about losing the tooth at the front and I'm with an NHS Dentist so sadly can't afford a fortune for an implant or what ever they're called.

Albeit NHS Dentist but a very good one, modern pratice and I've seen people praising it on here aswell. Stoke on trent @ Shelton dental centre so I I'm in good hands!!

I'll try and get an appointment made for Monday, afterall there's no point in suffering horrible pain for no reason!

Cheers

 

[AnxietyGuy]

Hi guys,

Toothache kept waking me up last night when I eventually got to sleep (5AM.)

When I woke up, I looked in the mirror and noticed my lip area was a little bit swole and there feels like there's something stuck in my gum when I extend my mouth/talk etc.

I've had an abcess before, so I'm 99.999% sure that I've got an abcess again because it really feels the same.

I don't get why the filling is only 6 months old and I've had trouble with it so soon, I've been very careful with it.

I'm going to hopefully see my dentist tomorrow on an emergency appointment tomorrow, is it safe to wait another day? I don't want this thing killing me.

Cheers

 

[letsconnect]

It's not gonna kill you . But if you are in pain, you can go to A&E (or an NHS walk-in center, if there is one in your area) and get a prescription for antibiotics/painkillers.

The problem probably isn't related to anything that you have done (or not done) - rather, if the tooth experienced a bit too much trauma in the past (e.g. through repeated dental procedures or work that was done close to the "nerve"), this could have lead to pulp becoming inflamed.

I hope you'll be able to see your dentist soon and get the problem sorted

 

[AnxietyGuy]

It's not gonna kill you . But if you are in pain, you can go to A&E (or an NHS walk-in center, if there is one in your area) and get a prescription for antibiotics/painkillers.

The problem probably isn't related to anything that you have done (or not done) - rather, if the tooth experienced a bit too much trauma in the past (e.g. through repeated dental procedures or work that was done close to the "nerve"), this could have lead to pulp becoming inflamed.

I hope you'll be able to see your dentist soon and get the problem sorted

Thanks for the reply.

Within the past couple of hours, the pain has gone off and when I bight down on the tooth/teeth I'm not getting the pain sensation I was getting at the start, they feel pretty normal now.

The abcess in my gum feels like it has gone down a bit but it is still there.

In an ideal world I'd like to think that this is a sign that it's just going disappear and I wont need to go to the dentist but sadly we don't live in an ideal world!

The tooth is just slightly throbbing with no pain now, but something tells me that it's going to get painful again later on!

Cheers

 

[RP]

I don't know...............pain at night, swelling, lump in the gum.... sounds like an abscess. Eventually the nerve dies off completely and they can stop hurting but that's not always a good thing ....the infection is still there. Best way to find out is to see your dentist.

Sometimes when a cavity is close to the nerve or pulp, some bacteria gets down there, the filling proces causes inflammation and not long after a filling can "blow".

 

[AnxietyGuy]

I don't know...............pain at night, swelling, lump in the gum.... sounds like an abscess. Eventually the nerve dies off completely and they can stop hurting but that's not always a good thing ....the infection is still there. Best way to find out is to see your dentist.

Sometimes when a cavity is close to the nerve or pulp, some bacteria gets down there, the filling proces causes inflammation and not long after a filling can "blow".

I guess I could suggest to my dentist to just give me some antibiotics to clear up the infection and leave it at that. And if I did get another abcess, could always go down the root canal road!

Cheers

 

[RP]

Antibiotics do not really treat the infection in the tooth, only the surrounding tissue so that inflammation in the small space goes down and releives pain, but the underlying cause isn't affected in the least. The blood supply is cut off to the tooth pulp (nerve) tissue, therefore you can eat all the antibiotics you want- they're not going to reach the inside of the tooth.

 

[AnxietyGuy]

Antibiotics do not really treat the infection in the tooth, only the surrounding tissue so that inflammation in the small space goes down and releives pain, but the underlying cause isn't affected in the least. The blood supply is cut off to the tooth pulp (nerve) tissue, therefore you can eat all the antibiotics you want- they're not going to reach the inside of the tooth.

Ahh right, I see...

The only option would be a route canal treatment then or extraction? Do you have any idea how long they usually take to complete? I hate sitting in the chair for a long amount of time! Would the dentist be likely to supply me with antibiotics first and then carry out a route canal?

I would prefer to go for the extraction route but obviously don't want a big space in the front of my mouth!

Cheers

 

[letsconnect]

Root treatment on front teeth is the easiest and quickest, because front teeth usually only have one canal.

But it's a bit premature speculating about all this over the internet - it would be much better if you could see your dentist and let them have a look to assess what's actually going on .

 

[AnxietyGuy]

Root treatment on front teeth is the easiest and quickest, because front teeth usually only have one canal.

But it's a bit premature speculating about all this over the internet - it would be much better if you could see your dentist and let them have a look to assess what's actually going on .

Yep I will hopefully be able to see the dentist tomorrow.

Thanks for all the replys guys, appreciated! Now just to bare one more night of pain! I am getting a bit of numbness below my nostril now, I assume this is just because of the abcess and with the faulty tooth being at the front. Also I still get pain behind my right eye when I move it around, not sure if it's related to the tooth abcess at all?

Cheers

 

[AnxietyGuy]

I will be able to see my dentist today at 12:20. However I was told the dentist that usually seems me isn't at the practice anymore, this is really worrying me because she knew how anxious I was and made me feel at ease, I don't feel good about having to see a new dentist at all.

I will keep you guys updated on how everything goes, hopefully there wont be any dental work done today, I didn't have a good sleep and don't feel brilliant.

Cheers