• Dental Phobia Support

    Welcome! This is an online support group for anyone who is has a severe fear of the dentist or dental treatment. Please note that this is NOT a general dental problems or health anxiety forum! You can find a list of them here.

    Register now to access all the features of the forum.

Failed Root Canal

A

Annabeth

Junior member
Joined
Apr 7, 2025
Messages
2
Location
Maryland
I went to see a dentist for the first time in a few years in October. I was having a small amount of pain in my upper first molar and they actually did a great job helping to manage my fears. The dentist said I needed a crown, and the nitrous got me through the appointment for the crown impressions and temporary crown placement.

I got covid before the permanent crown fitting however, so I had to delay it for two weeks. By the time I went back, I was having pain in the tooth again. So they adjusted my bite and told me to wait another few weeks. I didn't make it that long, though, as the pain worsened. When I went back in, they sent me to an endo. The endo decided right away I needed a root canal, and I had one in November. The pain did not go away completely right away so they continued to delay my permanent crown. After a couple months, it had actually gotten to the point where I could chew soft things on the tooth. But suddenly near the end of February, the pain came back again, but much worse than before. I went to see the endo and he said he would need to "go back in" but I could not get an appointment until March 31. I had a second root canal and the endo said (and showed me) that he had found another (fourth) canal and that this should alleviate the pain. It has been a week, however, and I am still having significant pain from pressure on the tooth. I am afraid that the endo has become frustrated with me, and I fear if I go back to say I have pain still, he will just say that the tooth needs to be extracted (which terrifies me). My root canal check-up appointment is not until April 30, but I don't know if I can wait that long. I am thinking about the tooth all the time and running through all the possible bad scenarios in my head.

My question is whether it is possible that the second root canal was successful even though I am having significant pain from pressure after a week? Or is it a bad idea to wait to let the endo know that the pain has not improved much?

Thank you so much.
 
You need to let the endodontist know and take it from there. They won't be frustrated with you they might be a bit upset with your tooth but that isn't your fault!

It might need some more time to settle down, but the endodontist will be best placed to tell you this.

As an aside, if you can cope with a crown prep and 2 root canal treatments you can manage a simple extraction very easily :-)
 
Noted, thank you so much. And I appreciate the encouragement. :)
 
Back
Top