I'm back...and so is the pain! Argh!

[madsteph]

Oh boy..

I was hoping I'd said goodbye to this forum for good..even though its been very good to me, I thought that I could finally lay my dentist fears to rest. But perhaps not!

Root canal. Big pain in the butt! I had my final check up a month odd ago. How is it? the dentist asked. It was good..I'd had the odd twinge or two after the crown went on but apart from that I was fine. He did tell me that after looking at the x-ray the post was just a little long in length. Said this was nothing to worry about but that the odd twinge or two was the result of the longer post. He wasn't concerned. Better to be a tad too long than too small.

So off I went merrily and have had no trouble since. Well tell a lie..the other day it was slightly odd to bite on but it was just a one off. I've been eating normally since the crown went on..didn't really think I had to be concerned about being careful as the crown is supposed to protect the tooth right?

Well today I go to tuck into a lovely meal and ow! Heat sensitivity! Never experienced sensitivity to hot or cold on this tooth EVER before. And I mean the pain was quite severe. It died down as soon as I took the heat away. I tried to eat on it after that and it weren't all too bad except for when I put something that was remotely quite warm (not too hot) and the pain came back!

What is the meaning of this? I'm afraid to go eat or drink anything now. I'm worried as well. Does this mean another trip to the dentist and more expense? I'm due to get married next year and just can't afford all the extra cost (I am now private due to a no. of horrible experiences with nhs dentists..the root canal has already cost me a fortune).

So bummed out.

Help! x

 

[Zzzdentist]

A root canaled tooth shouldn't be sensitive to heat or cold so it most likely is due to a different tooth reacting to the heat. It probably would be best to have it double checked to see what's up.

 

[madsteph]

Hi zzzdenstist..why does it feel like its the root canaled tooth that hurts then when I eating something hot?

 

[letsconnect]

I think zzz was saying that the pain might be referred pain from another tooth, providing that the root canal is all ok. This would be the most likely explanation. Of course, it could be that there is a problem with the root canalled (sp?) tooth, for example that a root was missed if it was a back tooth. If the root canal was done by a dentist, you could try getting a second opinion from an endodontist (specialist in root treatment) to figure out what exactly is going on.

 

[Zzzdentist]

Well I was going for the Reader's Digest condensed explanation there, but yeah LC is pretty much right on the ball there.