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Chronic toothache

M

Minnie2

Junior member
Joined
Nov 25, 2019
Messages
9
Location
Surrey
Some help and advice please anyone?

I started this toothache in my upper right teeth back last September and a sensitivity to anything remotely hot. Dentist took an xray but could see nothing wrong. At that time I had to have a tooth out lower right and she said the top pain could be referred pain. But it still continued. I hadn't been too happy with this dentist so changed to another mainly for a second opinion.

Again more xrays, but this new dentist , although sympathetic , again could see nothing wrong. Suggested there may be some infection lurking where she could not see and prescribed erythromycin for 10 days. That did nothing. So back again to the dentist. She then referred me to see a maxfax consultant .... I had a full face x ray and also a CT scan of my face.

Then Lockdown ! The consultant rang me to say he could see nothing wrong, the CT scan showed my sinuses where absolutely clear, and that he though I had a degree of "pulpitis" in UR4 and possibly UR5 (which has a big old filling) . So , as all the dentists were now closed I could do nothing ... and still the pain continued,

I was able to visit the dentist this Tuesday at last. Again she did another xray but the same conclusion... she could see nothing untoward. So after a long discussion she said really the only way forward was to do a root canal on the one middle tooth that has this large filling. She "thinks" this could be the culprit... and there "might" be an infection lurking there.

But surely if I had an abscess or some infection after all these months it would have erupted in some way? and it could be any one of the three top teeth where this pain seems to come from . The ache radiates up into mu cheek and under the right eye and into the right side of my nose. On a bad day it is over my head and into my ear. I take paracetamol and ibuprofen when it is bad. I can go some days and it is just ticking away in the background, and other days when it is raging.

I am so scared to have root canal treatment as have heard really nothing but problems with that. But I just can't face having another tooth extraction .

I am so bothered that the dentist just doesn't know which tooth is the problem (not her fault as nothing is showing on the xrays) . I fear I will go through with this root canal and it will just make matters worse.

I am so afraid to go to the dentist anyway so this is just freaking me out.

To be honest, I'd rather put up with what I have now.... but it's that worry that there is some sort of infection there which isn't going to go away.

I can eat perfectly well on that right side , it doesn't hurt when I bite down hard... the dentist has banged all those three teeth but that doesn't hurt either, so surely if it was infected or an abscess then I'd have trouble eating? I do get an extreme fleeting pain with anything hot.

Also it doesn't seem to bother me at night , thankfully !

Sorry for the long post....

Thank you
thanks
 
Old age is kicking in again, I might be missing something, what's the question Minnie?
 
Sorry Gordon.. I just wondered if by reading my story it looks like root canal treatment is the way to go? If nothing shows up on either x ray or CT scan and the dentist on "thinks" there might be something going on .. and not sure which tooth anyway I just fear that I might end up with more problems . If you were my dentist what would you do?
 
Sorry everyone.. I rather went on a bit on my previous post ! My dentist and a maxfax consultant I saw back in February think I have pulpitis in top upper right teeth .. and therefore the dentist recommends I have root canal treatment.

I am very loathe to have that done as terrified of that procedure.. so my question is : will this pulpitis get worse if I leave it all alone, bearing in mind I have had this now since last September so 9 months ?

The toothache has been the same for the whole of this time... not worse.. and definitely not better.. and some days it recedes slightly, and doesn't keep me awake at night.

Should I leave well alone?
Thank you .
 
If I were your dentist I would try to diagnose further. X-ray won't show up if the nerve is dying and there isn't infection established yet. Probably try electronic pulp test and/or a test cavity in the suspect tooth to see if the nerve was still alive, then take it from there.
Wait and see is always an option, a really bad toothache won't kill anyone, but it would help with diagnosis :)
 
Thanks Gordon. My dentist did try to do a "heat " test on my teeth back in January. She heated up what looked like a mini soldering iron.. but I'm afraid I totally freaked out and couldn't let her do anything. What a complete baby. I just don't think I can face a root canal at the moment. I'll go back to my dentist and have a further chat about this. Thanks for your help.
 
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