Root canal tooth infected??

[AngelCatMei]

Hi,

Two weeks ago I felt some plusing feel on my 4 months old root canal tooth. When I press on the gum, it feels tender as well. I informed my ortho (who is also my general dentist who did this root canal) about it, she didn't took any x-ray but told me that it must be too stressed up by elastic.

Now, the tooth doesn't hurt anymore nor does the gum. It only hurts after wearing elastic. Therefore, I went to another clinic to took an x-ray to be safe as I'm gonna be out of country soon. If it is infected once again, I won't hesitate to pull it out. This tooth went through a lot after root canal procedure, it feels pain and throbbing the whole next day... It dies off after I took antibiotics and have been fine for last few months.

Current X-ray after 4 months


April 2018 xrayx infection shown


Hopefully someone can help. The right side canal doesn't look as good as the left canal.

 

[Gordon]

Sorry but your x-rays are too small to be any use. What did the second dentist who took the x-rays think? It could be that the stress of the orthodontic treatment is causing some pain, there's a lot of bone damage visible in the pre-op x-ray, or it could be the RCT is failing, but you can't tell from the information here.

 

[AngelCatMei]

Sorry but your x-rays are too small to be any use. What did the second dentist who took the x-rays think? It could be that the stress of the orthodontic treatment is causing some pain, there's a lot of bone damage visible in the pre-op x-ray, or it could be the RCT is failing, but you can't tell from the information here.

Oh no sorry for the small image! Here's the link to a larger image.

http://imgur.com/2z03Ned

The second dentist told me it is possible that the elastic is causing the stress on that tooth before we took an x-ray. After seeing that x-ray she say from what she see, there's still shadow shown on the xray and it's a small infection.

Does it means that the infection could destroy the bone? If it is root canal failing, will I get any symptoms?

???

 

[Gordon]

Thanks that helps.

It looks like a nice root filling, so I'd give it the benefit of the doubt for a bit longer. It's hard to say if it's failing at this stage, you'd want another x-ray in a week or so to see if the shadow is increasing or decreasing in size. The infection eats away a bit of bone, which is why there's a shadow, but if the RCT has worked, the infection will be gone and the bone will start filling in again.

 

[AngelCatMei]

Thanks that helps.

It looks like a nice root filling, so I'd give it the benefit of the doubt for a bit longer. It's hard to say if it's failing at this stage, you'd want another x-ray in a week or so to see if the shadow is increasing or decreasing in size. The infection eats away a bit of bone, which is why there's a shadow, but if the RCT has worked, the infection will be gone and the bone will start filling in again.

Thank you. From what I see, there's some shadow in the root filling as well compared to another canal which look "clean".

Was thinking perhaps the filling have erosion on it own or there's a crack on the tip of the root which allow more bacteria to enter the sealed canal.

I can't see a difference in size of the shadow from pre op to post op too.

Will definitely ask my dentist to take a look next week however I'm afraid that she think I don't trust her by going to another dentist for x-ray..

 

[grumpybear]

You can just tell her that you were in alot of pain and hence needed to go to another dentist near your place/work place to get it looked at quickly.

 

[Enarete]

Will definitely ask my dentist to take a look next week however I'm afraid that she think I don't trust her by going to another dentist for x-ray..

A lot of patients get second opinions if they are afraid something is wrong. Even dentists themselves consult colleagues sometimes when they have doubts so I am sure your dentist won‘t take it personally.

 

[AngelCatMei]

One more day to my next appointment.

I kind of wish my dentist will suggest extracting it. However I have a feeling she will just ask me monitor it. I am really afraid that it will flare up during my trip. I have very bad luck with travelling. I am always having health problem while I'm at overseas ugh.

Currently this tooth just feel weird. Is like every morning after I woke up and took off my elastic, I saw some white liquid in between my molar and pre molar. It seems like pus.

The pulsing feel was back the day before today but it's gone now.

Super stressed up.

 

[grumpybear]

Well, at the end of the day, you are the patient and the one paying for your treatment. The dentists (and doctors too) can suggest all the treatment in the world all they want, but you as the patient ultimately decides what you want to do. If you really want to extract the tooth then you can just tell your dentist accordingly.

 

[Gordon]

Actually, no you can't, sorry. Nobody can give consent for sub-optimal treatment, so if the dentist extracted the tooth and was sure it was the wrong thing to do, you could rinse them in court