Newly crowned tooth hurting pretty bad

[Acheygirl]

Oh the stress! My dental fears are through the roof.

I had been diagnosed with atypical dental pain after two root canals did not fix the pain. After seeing a specialist he feels all looks good with the two root canal teeth.

I do have a large cracked and heavily filled molar behind the two root canal teeth and since my pain settled I decided it was the time to get a crown in hopes to see if it's salvageable. This tooth never hurt. I have held off as I was afraid prepping and crowning would cause irreversible pulpitis. This tooth has several cracks.

Dentist took out all the old filling and said he's seen worse cracks but did not indicate if he felt it went into the root. (I imagine he may have suggested extraction otherwise)? I had the crown prep this past Wed. He mentioned he put some insulation in there? When the novocaine started to wear off later that evening it began to ache. I have been taking advil. It goes through moments where it hurts pretty bad and if I bite on that tooth near the back it hurts sharply. Hurts to touch the side of the tooth at the gum line even though the crown does not go up that high. I think this is more of a partial crown. P
Pain mainly upon eating and it changes through the day. Is this an inevitable root canal? Have you ever seen a patient with bad pain after a crown end up recovering without a root canal? Lastly is it possible it could be infected this quickly? In a desperate move to save my tooth from root canal I am trying to keep any inflammation down via advil and just not chewing on the tooth or messing with it. Praying there is a glimmer of hope it might not go Darth Vader on me!

 

[Gordon]

It's possibly a reversible pulpitis at this stage, the stress trauma may have caused some inflammation which may settle down or it might not, I'm afraid it's too early to tell. It won't be "infected" yet.

 

[Acheygirl]

Thank you so much Dr. Gordon for your reply. Can advil or other anti-inflammatory drugs prevent it going irreversible? As of now it feels ok. Some tingly sensations and it did not wake me up at night but I felt it as soon as I did wake up. I have been placing sensodyne on it. I am praying it calms down. I will keep you posted thank you again for taking the time to respond.

 

[Gordon]

No, nothing to my knowledge will stop the pulp from dying. I doubt the Sensodyne will help either, but it can't possibly do any harm so carry on if it makes you feel better

 

[Acheygirl]

Doctor Gordon it turned out to need a root canal. I thought it was turning a corner but unfortunately when I bit down the pain ramped up and became referred to my lower teeth. Woke me up at 4am. Had the root canal today. Question if you don't mind? He said part of the pulp was necrotic, what does necrotic pulp look like? Also he mentioned it was liquidy does that mean it was breaking down? Anyhow thanks for chiming in as always!

 

[Gordon]

That's too bad, but it's not the end of the world. Necrotic pulp starts off by looking sort of grey and squishy, then it goes more like a sort of grey sludge. It usually smells very bad too. Once you smell it you always remember it. I can close my eyes right now and whiff it!!