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My tooth experience from filling to root canal to extraction

F

Feelingill

Junior member
Joined
May 26, 2016
Messages
13
Hi,
I just though I’d put down my experience in case anyone was looking for experiences to compare with their own. So here’s the journey of my first molar on the upper left side.

It started about 13 years ago. During a routine dental checkup appointment my dentist said I had a cavity in this tooth and would need a filling. I had had no pain or other symptoms before hand. He did it then and there and I thought no more about it other than to make the changes to not let me need another filling again ( I stopped drinking anything with sugar in it and started brushing after most meals where I could - before I had only done morning and night.

All in all this experience was really quite positive. The filling hadn’t been uncomfortable and I wasn’t really freaked out by any of it.
All was fine until about 10 years later.......
 
10 years on from the filling I started to get toothache. I couldn’t get an appointment at the dentists for three days and the pain got bad, very bad. It was so horrific I couldn’t do anything other than roll around. It hurt to eat, not eat, drink, not drink, couldn’t sleep, couldn’t concentrate - no painkiller did anything, it was awful.

When I got to the dentist he said the filling wasn’t compromised and hadn’t failed or deteriorated but there must have been a tiny amount of bacteria left inside from 10 years ago that had now became active. It had to be a root canal!:cry:

He started it then and there and I got a temporary filling and had to go back in 3 weeks to get it completed. He gave me amoxicillin but said not to take it - only if the pain came back on bad during the 3 weeks. I have a major fear of medications (can’t really swallow them, worried of allergic reactions, worried antibiotics will do harm elsewhere in my body etc).
However the pain didn’t return, I just had some strange sensations and the tooth felt very weird to how it had done before.

After the 3 weeks he completed the root canal and that went ok. I was a bit traumatised but really it wasn’t that bad at all.

For the following weeks after this I had strange sensations from time to time shooting up the tooth. I went back a couple of times but my dentist said there was nothing wrong and showed me the X-ray (he was very proud at how perfectly the root was filled). He said I could take the amoxicillin if I was worried so I did as I was so scared of the horrific pain returning. This then started off a whole new anxiety saga but that story’s not for here!

Anyway the sensations came and went for about 6 months and then eventually went away. I put it down to the tooth just feeling different to the others as it was I suppose effectively dead.

About 15 months on from the root canal it became painful to hot and cold when I was eating and drinking. I consulted this website and the advice I got was that as it is a root canal tooth I shouldn’t really get pain from it as the root it dead. It only lasted about a week and as I recently had had a sinus infection I put it down to that and eventually forgot about it. I must admit I did majorly freak out at first though.

All fine again until about a month ago when I started to get toothache again - in the same tooth!.....:scared:
 
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The toothache started in my face above where the tooth was. At first I thought it was my sinuses but then it quickly developed to horrendous pain again. My worst nightmare had come true! At least it happened mid week and I could go to the dentist the next day.

I sat down in the dentist’s chair (terrified) and I explained the pain and he said ‘that sounds ominous’. I’m thinking ‘OMG he’ll not be able to see what’s wrong, he’ll give me antibiotics, we’ll never get to the bottom of it etc’ but then he had one look and said there was a massive crack down the tooth and it couldn’t be saved it would have to come out! He explained it may be hard to extract as it was cracked and there wasn’t time then so I went back in a couple of hours to have it pulled. During this time I looked up tooth extractions and fully freaked myself out about dry socket etc but just wanted it out for the pain to stop.

When I went back he numbed me and I couldn’t feel anything so he pulled it out. It took less than 10 seconds! I was so relieved. He said it was cracked right down the middle. He gave me the gauze to bite down on and I staggered out onto the street in a daze of numbness, relief and shock. I already had an appointment booked for a check up a week later so he said we would discuss bridge teeth etc then.

I was so relieved but when I got home my anxiety really started to kick in....
 
As soon as the numbness started to wear off the pain was still there. It was exactly the same as before except now I had extra pain in the gums where the needles had gone in. Why was I still in pain? I was trying really hard not to panic but I was failing.
I had the gauze in my mouth for just over an hour then I gently took it off - it was still bleeding - I panicked, bit down on one of the spare pieces he had given me then realised it was still bleeding - the gauze wasn’t even touching up the hole! I put in the last piece better and bit down hard. I then went into uncontrollable weeping. All the emotion and anxiety from the past two days just came out. I was the most upset about using up all the spare gauze - what would I do if it was still bleeding when I removed this last piece? I can’t tell you how terrified I was in that moment.
An hour later I removed the gauze and it only bled slightly and then came to a stop. PHEW - one worry down, now just the terror of getting an infection or dry socket.
The terrible pain continued for the next 3 days, no paracetamol or codeine could touch it. Also how on earth are you supposed to take any pain relief when you can’t drink on that side for 24 hours? Trying to swallow a pill with water while trying to avoid one half of your mouth is impossible!
The left side of my face was also quite swollen and there was a big lump in my cheek near the extraction site. I was very worried why the pain wasn’t lessening though. I could see the clot so knew I couldn’t have dry socket. When I was examining the hole there was this red lump on the side of the crater. I did a lot of internet research and discovered from another forum on another site that ulcers/ canker sores are quite common to get near or on the extraction site. I was quite relieved to think that this was what the pain was, although I still did worry because I didn’t know for sure I was only self diagnosing.

The pain did start to go over the next few days but it was still sore at the site and the three teeth in front and the two behind the site were very sore to the touch. I didn’t freak out though as I had read from this forum that that was quite common.

The clot turned black and then white started to cover it. I’d read from this site that is granulation. This went after two weeks and since then it has looked dark pink/red.

A week after the extraction I returned to the dentist and told him of the pain I still had. He said it was a major tooth I had had out and the other teeth around were bound to be upset a bit. He also commented that I had a large open wound and it was quite ulcerated. I went to the hygienist afterwards and her response when she looked was ‘Whoa’.

After a week and a half the swelling in my face went down and most of the pain went within two weeks.

It’s 3 weeks today since the extraction and I only sometimes get slight pain in the area. It is still a raw wound though. No pink gum forming yet. The red ulcerated bits are still there. I guess it was such a large wound it’s a slow healer. There is no way I could eat anything over on that side and I have to be careful when brushing near there.

I will post when the whole starts to look like it’s healing over.

Overall I am a lot calmer about it now but it was very traumatic. Everyone who I know that has had a tooth out say it healed really quickly and they didn’t feel anything afterwards. I just wanted to post so if anyone else has a similar experience to me they will know it’s like that for some other people too and it doesn’t mean anything is wrong.
Thanks
 
I am so sorry about your experience. I am going through something similar with the root canal. I already know mine is problematic two weeks after the procedure, and the endodontist is looking at next steps before extraction.
 
Omg this sounds very traumatic! I’m glad theceorse seems to be over for you and your in trctiad to recovery x
 
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