Dental work with uvulitis

[Anne2021]

I have severe dental phobia and have already lost five teeth, with two more that definitely have to go and three on top of that that are in danger or are already too far gone. I have been avoiding for a long time, and now I have another problem. For the last four months, I have had a chronic issue with uvulitis. It's not always at a scary level, but when it first started and when it flares, the uvula is swollen and the back of my throat is red. My doctor thinks it's related to acid reflux. My history has always been that when I am under particularly heavy stress, I get acid reflux. I started a new job six months ago that has been very stressful and is no doubt a major contributor to the acid. I don't want to try the Rx acid meds because they have never worked for me and the acid only gets better when the stress gets better. Now, however, it's adding to my fear of going to the dentist. The numbing always make me feel like I'm going to suffocate or choke and if the uvula is even a little swollen and my throat inflamed, I already feel that way. I don't know what would happen if I got anesthetic while things are the way they are. I'm terrified I will choke to death. I have a new symptom with my teeth just tonight. Today was a very stressful day with other things so I am waiting to see if some of it is psychosomatic or something like that. Have any dentists here worked on a patient who already had uvulitis when they came in?

 

[Gordon]

Yes, it wasn't a big deal for that patient though. No reason why it would cause any issues with dental treatment.

 

[Anne2021]

@Gordon Thank you for the reply. The uvulitis just adds to my fear.

 

[Anne2021]

Part of the reason that I am asking is that I am having a tooth that suddenly got worse yesterday. I have a lot of teeth in a bad way, and I have been hoping to make it until February or March when the busy season at my job is done. It's a new job and things aren't going very well and the stress is intense. It's a big part of the acid reflux. I don't know how to deal with going to the dentist and opening up that can of worms because I have teeth under crowns that are a big unknown and will probably need extracting, but they won't know until they take the crowns off. I don't do root canals because of horror stories and I just can't take it mentally.

One of the bad teeth is number 19. It has decay under a 23-year-old crown. I tried a new dentist in July because my old dentist retired. The new dentist said we could try filling it, but she didn't know what she would find underneath the crown and if it would need root canal or extraction, which means extraction in my case. Then about three weeks later the uvulitis started. I didn't really think we had a great rapport, but I wasn't sure where else to go. Teeth 18 and 20 are already gone and it's been by itself over there for three years. I grind my teeth badly. I have suspected that it is drifting. A few weeks ago I started protecting 13 and chewing differently because 13 needs a crown and I think I lost two small chips of decayed tooth or filling three weeks ago. I was trying to keep the food between 14 and 19 and I know that the pressure on 19 wasn't normal.

Then suddenly last night, while eating something soft, I had a sharp pain. I was taken aback and tried to eat again and it happened again. Then I noticed that the pain isn't really when I bite down, though there is soreness. It's when I'm gathering the food with my tongue and go to swallow. Last night I noticed that if I try to gather up spit in my mouth to spit it out, it hurts intensely on that tooth. If I'm careful, I can gather spit to swallow, but not spit out. Brushing my teeth would be very painful. I have barely eaten today because even if I chew on the other side, as soon as I go to move the food into position to swallow, something causes the tooth to hurt and sort of feel loose at the same time. The pain doesn't linger long. I have a tendency to get facial pain of unknown origin when I am very stressed and since this started last night, I feel pain in multiple areas of my mouth. If I relax, it goes away. I have been wondering if the crown is loose from grinding, a bad bite, and/or decay - or if the tooth could be sprained/the periodontal ligament inflamed from the last three weeks of bad chewing on top of years of drifting. If it was that the decay had made it to the nerve, wouldn't it hurt spontaneously? Like while I'm sleeping or other times when I don't trigger it?

About the same time that I started protecting 13, I realized that for weeks I had been rubbing my tongue up against the side of 19 at the gumline - probably at the base of the crown - as a nervous habit for weeks to maybe a couple of months. I made a conscious decision to stop that. Now I'm wondering if the way I was pushing on it with my tongue could have loosened the crown or contributed to ligament inflammation.

If the crown is loose and they pull it off, can they put it back on temporarily even if the decay is bad? I usually see an oral surgeon I like and trust for extraction, but if they take the crown off, could I be stuck? I don't know what to do next. I made an appointment with another dentist that I got glowing recommendations for regarding her gentleness and compassion. She happens to be in the office where my last dentist was, but I never saw her before. She can't see me for 7 weeks, (though I didn't express urgency to them yet). Is there any way to tell if it's the ligament? I've got a strange, itchy feeling in the tooth that I've had before in a different tooth (14) that is still in my mouth years after having that feeling. It's itchy in the gumline, but also feels itchy between the crown and the tooth (or that's what my brain is telling me). The other tooth - that I still have - which is also crowned - felt like that years ago and the crown wasn't loose and nothing bad happened, but it also didn't have this severity of pain when I trigger it. The tooth also sometimes feels a little high when I bite down, not always. I had another tooth (3) like that a very long time ago - different than the one mentioned above, and that one appears to be stable (though it has a crown).

I am terrified to get anesthetic while I have the uvulitis. The numbing already makes me feel like I can't breathe and I panic. Add the uvulitis and the fact that I don't have a dentist with a history with me or that I trust, and I don't know what to do or how much of an emergency this is.

 

[Anne2021]

Also, if any non-dentists read this and have anything to offer, please do. I'm just so scare.

 

[Anne2021]

Also, when this hit last night I had just had an ocular migraine - third one ever, they started in June. Almost exactly when those symptoms wore off - zing - the tooth started out of nowhere.

 

[Anne2021]

I got an appointment at 3:45pm today (US Central Time Zone) to assess what's going on. I'm terrified.

 

[Anne2021]

Well, it's bad. First, the dentist was very compassionate, understanding, and kind. At this point, I plan on staying with her. Second, the tooth has to come out ASAP. Some of the things she said: she was surprised that I haven't had more pain (maybe I have and didn't want to admit it to myself); the ligament areas on the x-ray have the beginnings of abscess in them - not active infection - but any day now; already damage to the bone; a lot of decay obvious on x-ray even with a porcelain-to-metal crown; too late for root canal (which I would never be able to handle anyway). I'm headed for a major emergency if it doesn't come out ASAP. It was the end of the day and the oral surgeon was closed, but the dentist's office will call first thing in the morning to make an appointment. Based on how it feels and what she said - the sooner the better - but I am so, so scared. I don't want to go, and I have no choice.