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can a dentist give me advice about prolonged pain post root canal? (xray included)

R

river

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Aug 16, 2015
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can a dentist give me advice about prolonged pain post root canal? (xray included)

I had a RCT of #29 3 1/2 weeks ago. The RCT was on a virgin tooth that had pain to eating, especially sweet, hot, cold, but no decay.

Since the second the anesthesia wore off, the tooth has hurt 10x worse than before. I saw the referring dentist and the endodontist who did the root canal multiple times and they all say they don't know why it hurts so much. There was no infection prior, and they don't know why the RCT made it hurt more.

I am living on pain medicine and barely still getting relief. Can someone look at this xray and see if they can see anything? I am considering getting it extracted because of the pain but the endodontist keeps telling me to "hold on". If it were getting any better at all I would hold on, but I am in so much pain every second, I cannot live my life.

The general dentist said there might be a tiny overfill which might be causing irritation to the PDL, but the endo, looking at the same xray, says the root filling is confined inside the tooth and there is no overfill. I asked about retreatment and he said it would have no reason, as the root canal is fine.

Can someone help? If there was any visible reason to have this pain I would at least know extraction was the best thing to do. It is hard for me to consider it because the dentists are saying not to, and it's a visible tooth and I am young.

I will try to attach the xray.
 

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Re: can a dentist give me advice about prolonged pain post root canal? (xray included)

I also wanted to add that they adjusted the tooth totally out of occlusion and I also wear a night guard which does not allow my back teeth to touch.
 
Re: can a dentist give me advice about prolonged pain post root canal? (xray included)

here is another xray from a different angle.
 

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Re: can a dentist give me advice about prolonged pain post root canal? (xray included)

Hi,

can you tell us about the nature of the pain? Does it effect half of the lip as well? Does it get worse when pressure I sallied on that specific tooth?
 
Re: can a dentist give me advice about prolonged pain post root canal? (xray included)

Hello and thank you for replying.

The lip is not painful or affected. The pain is similar to the way it was before the root canal, it feels like it is in the gum around the tooth, like a knife sticking up through my gum, very sharp and constant. It does get worse with pressure applied to the tooth.
 
Re: can a dentist give me advice about prolonged pain post root canal? (xray included)

I know it's hard to diagnose over the internet, that was why I hoped someone could give me their impression of the xrays I posted of that tooth because at least that's a tangible thing you can see.

I saw a periodontist (even though my dentist said no need) and he says the gums are OK, nothing noted that could cause such a pain around just one tooth.

I am living on constant high doses of Ibuprofen which would be bad enough except it does not take the pain away! It just dulls it a slight bit. I am also rubbing ambesol on the gum which also just dulls the pain (probably by confusing the sensory nerves since the pain feels deeper than just the surface). I don't feel safe taking narcotic pain medicine because I am home alone with young children. So I just live in this horrible painful state day in and out, and keep waiting for it to get better but it's just not!

I've looked all over and that tooth and gum doesn't seem visibly different than the ones next to it. So it has to be something deeper than what I can see.

My dentist had me bite on a stick but the pain was not worse after biting. It is worse after tapping on that tooth with an instrument (he did that also) but it's so constant (the pain) that it doesn't get better after the tapping is over.
 
Re: can a dentist give me advice about prolonged pain post root canal? (xray included)

Hi,

If I had to put my money where the problem is, I would say it's the root canal treatment. The question is how can you proceed from here. I believe you have tow choices:
the first is continuing investigating, for example by making a 3D imaging of the tooth, till a solid diagnose is achieved. This path takes more time so if you can still bare the pain for a few more days/weeks I would reccomend doing so.
The second option is taking an immediate action. Basically it either means redoing the root canal treatment (and then the clinician can look directly in the root) or having the tooth extracted. I would reccomend taking this path if the tooth is too painful.

Hooe of it makes some sense.
 
can a dentist give me advice about prolonged pain post root canal? (xray included)

I used to have a root canal where the endodontist found out that I have 5 roots but was only able to clear 4 of them. Because the time was up and she had to make time for the next patient, I was closed with a temporary filling. The next day after the appointment I was on a horrible pain. I called the dentist again and she prescribed some antibiotics which only worked 2-3 days after started taking it.

I was on the most difficult moment for 3 days, unable to do anything. The paracetamol only worked to mask the pain a bit and it only lasted for 3 hours. I had to combine it with ibuprofen since taking too much paracetamol can damage your liver. I took roughly 7-8 painkillers a day.

If you have as much pain as I did, it must be that the root canal wasn't completed and leaving room for bacteria infection.
 
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