Pain on root canal and crown

[Ktooth]

Long story short, last year I had quite a bit of pain on three molars after having what I’ve been told, shoddy fillings done by a new dentist. I ended up with root canals and crowns on all three. The root canals were all completed between 10-11 months ago and the crowns placed 6 weeks after each RCT. Up until now, I’ve had no problem with any of the teeth since then. But last week molar #18 began aching (no temperature sensitivity or pain on chewing, just a general ache into my jaw). And now idk if it’s stress but another molar on the top is hurting too. But I went immediately to a dentist and got an X-ray on 18 because the pain was really bad. He told me the root canal and crown were awful and needed to be redone. So I called my endodontist right away who said the root canal filling material appears to be “washing away” at the ends and she wants me to come in for a 3D X-ray, but that she thinks the crown looks fine. I’ve gone through so many dentists and don’t know who to trust. I really hope this isn’t as bad as I’m thinking it could be. Here’s the X-ray of 18. Can anyone help? I have an appt at the endodontist tomorrow.

 

[Gordon]

I really distrust any dentist who slags off another dentist's work in front of a patient, in my experience it's a very bad sign (as well as being very unprofessional).
The crown looks OK on that film, there's a small defect on the mesial part of the crown but it's not significant. The root filling looks OK to me and there's no sign of any radiolucency at the end of the roots. Might be worth getting the bite on the crown checked carefully for high spots.

 

[Ktooth]

I really distrust any dentist who slags off another dentist's work in front of a patient, in my experience it's a very bad sign (as well as being very unprofessional).
The crown looks OK on that film, there's a small defect on the mesial part of the crown but it's not significant. The root filling looks OK to me and there's no sign of any radiolucency at the end of the roots. Might be worth getting the bite on the crown checked carefully for high spots.

Thank you for your reply, Gordon! I went to my endodontist today and she took a 3D scan of the tooth and said she notices that the filling material at the end of the roots appear to be “washing away”...she said it could be a rare case of it happening for no reason, or potentially a micro-fracture. She offered to redo the root canal and see if it brings any relief, otherwise the only options she gave me are to have it extracted or to keep waiting and see if it settles on it’s own...is there a lot of risk in having the root canal redone? Was a stressful experience the first time through, not sure I can deal with it again but also don’t want to neglect it.

 

[Mugz]

Hi! Not a dentist here but....had pain following root canal on #30 and upper tooth hurting too. The new crown was way too high and over time actually cracked the tooth above. I’d get it checked for “high spots” as Gordon said. Sooner rather than later. Hoping it settles down for you quickly.

 

[Gordon]

Redoing root canals is fairly straightforward for an endodontist, it's what they do 90% of the time, so shouldn't be a big issue. Root canal filling materials are designed to be "resorbed" by the tissues if they go out the end of the apex, so it's possible that there has been a bit too much of that going on. The biggest issue is that the endodontist will need to either remove the crown or drill through it to get to the canals, so you may end up needing a new crown.