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Exploding root canalled tooth?

C

Cosmo

Junior member
Joined
Dec 19, 2021
Messages
11
Location
Victoria BC
Back in early August I cracked a molar. Saw dentist a few days later, pain had gone by then. This dentist is new to me as hadn't been in some time. she said it needed a root canal, and even though I had fear she said the gas would make it okay. So, all was good but the permanent crown had to be filed a bit and it felt heavy and uncomfortable. She said it may take 8 months to 'settle down'. The last time I ate normal food was the Labour day weekend. It just hurt, like a festered sliver. During this time they were doing cleanings on me and I kept mentioning it, they kept saying nothing wrong. Whole right cheekbone pain up to corner of eye. Started off with a low dose aspirin 2 or 3 nights a week so I could sleep. Gradually moved up to 2 advil a day, eating only cubed food that I could swallow whole, liquids had to be body temp and in small amounts. I probably complained at least 4 times. When they did my flouride treatment the liquid was cold and it almost killed me the pain was so bad in that tooth. "There's nothing wrong". Then doing hourly salt rinses, 12 hours a day in bed and rest of day on couch, hurts to walk. Had appointment for a filling and 2 more filling removal/crowns on bottom. The casting material was cold- tears running down my face dentist shrugging "there's nothing wrong". By 4 days later I was confused, couldn't add numbers, driving was weird. Then I thought I got floss stuck beside that tooth- after fiddling with it and using olive oil and the waterpik out came a chunk of tooth from in between (I saved this). I'm cloudy on the exact order now. I had terrible burning in my sinus for a few hours but the relief from pain was almost instant and immense. I could literally drink ice cold club soda, and hot tea, and could eat. Head cleared up. I've had swollen glands in armpits but that's gone down now (one week in). I've been eating non stop and walking. There is zero pain. ZERO pain. I don't have a clue what to do and am going back in a couple weeks for these 2 crowns. This root canal/crown was $5000, the total for what she wants to do is around 20,000. No insurance and I'm not rich. Do I even say anything about this tooth? The hole is right between with a crown over top so I don't think it's fixable. BTW, my GP over the phone, had also said to "give it 6 months", but that was before it got real bad. It feels like extreme gaslighting. I actually had 'dental sepsis' up on my computer for if they found my corpse months later :( I also called a root canal specialist at one point and they said I couldn't possibly have pain after a root canal....
 
Hi, sorry to hear about your ordeal - that sounds terrible ?. It sounds as if your current dentist is completely ignoring your pain and your concerns. The root canal specialist you contacted doesn't sound great, either - of course it is possible to have pain after a root canal - for example, if a canal has been missed.

We have some pages here with tips for finding a good dentist, maybe they will be of help:



Have you thought about getting a second opinion on the crown that's been giving you all this trouble?

(btw, dental sepsis is very rare and almost always associated with previous health conditions such as a severely impaired immune system - so you don't need to worry too much on that score!)
 
An update- One month on from when this agony ended, it took about 3 weeks for the swelling to go down in the gum and for my nose to stop running. I can't even feel the crown now and it's no longer like a 20 lb weight hanging off my jaw. Also took a good 3 weeks for the pain/swelling in lymph nodes under the arms to go completely down. I saw a different dentist (recommended by GP), showed him the piece that came out, and he had a look- he actually physically LOOKED at the tooth. It appears something got jammed into the gum when the crown was fitted and that's what came out. I am so embarrassed that I cried when he came in and asked in a concerned tone if I was okay. I need to go back to the original dentist to have 2 crowns installed that she did the prep for and then will be changing dentist.
The upshot of this is that my dental phobia due to not freezing is now way worse, I don't trust anybody, and am very near to having an eating disorder. Sometimes I get up in the middle of the night and eat just because I can now.
What I would have done differently is see another dentist who would have physically looked at my swollen gum, which the original did not, they just did x rays. But when you are in such bad pain and a 'professional' is telling you nothing is wrong it's pretty hard to stand up to it.
 
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