root canal years ago, now pain in gum

[starryblu]

hello and thank you for reading my post.

I had a root canal on one of my lower teeth. I guess it's the one next to the eye tooth? Anyway...that was several years ago. it has given me problems, and a second dentist i saw worked on it. he also crowned it for me. the root canal was about four years ago, the crown has been on for a year or so. in the last two or three weeks, the gum below it has become very painful. in an area at the top, close to the tooth, and also far down, almost to the bottom of my gum. the pain will ease up if i am careful and don't eat anything hard or crunchy.

I'm figuring it probably is infected. I went to see my dentist when it first started hurting, and he said it may have to be pulled.

Does anyone have thoughts on this? If there is an infection in my gum, there any chance it will get better? Maybe with antibiotics? I don't want to lose the tooth. I have lost so many teeth, and the area where this tooth is is the only spot I have left to chew. And besides, I have about 2K invested in the tooth.

Can someone help me out? I have a terrible issue with phobia. It's hard enough to see my dentist, I don't want to go at all, have been putting it off. I also don't want to see him, and then be sent to an endodontist or oral surgeon.

What a dilemma. And I feel so awful...

 

[Jaylah]

Hi Starryblu,

Usually antibiotics will "tide you over" if you have an abscess, until you can get the cause fixed, but will never actually cure it for good.

But that's basically the reason (or one of them, anyway) for having a root canal.

If the tooth has been crowned, depending on the infection, it might be cured by having the crown taken off and the root-canal sort of "cleaned out." (Perhaps a tiny bit of pulp was missed and that's what's now causing the infection?) But I really can't say that for sure because 1) I haven't seen it, 2) I'm not a dentist, 3) I haven't seen the x-ray 4) I don't know how to read x-rays anyway.

Perhaps your dentist would be willing to prescribe a course of antibiotic therapy for you and, if it gets no better or comes back, then you'll probably be looking at losing that tooth. I'm sorry.

 

[starryblu]

Hi Starryblu,

Usually antibiotics will "tide you over" if you have an abscess, until you can get the cause fixed, but will never actually cure it for good.

But that's basically the reason (or one of them, anyway) for having a root canal.

If the tooth has been crowned, depending on the infection, it might be cured by having the crown taken off and the root-canal sort of "cleaned out." (Perhaps a tiny bit of pulp was missed and that's what's now causing the infection?) But I really can't say that for sure because 1) I haven't seen it, 2) I'm not a dentist, 3) I haven't seen the x-ray 4) I don't know how to read x-rays anyway.

Perhaps your dentist would be willing to prescribe a course of antibiotic therapy for you and, if it gets no better or comes back, then you'll probably be looking at losing that tooth. I'm sorry.

thanks so much Jaylah,

yep, you pretty much confirmed what i was thinking. i guess i should drag my butt back to my dentist and have him take another look. he's mentioned before, with another tooth, and i might need the root canal re-done. maybe he will let me try the antibiotics. root canals are sooo expensive, and i'm sooo poor. i don't like the alternative either, though. if i hadn't lost so many teeth already, i would have gone in and had the darn thing pulled by now.

sorry i'm being so cranky. i just feel awful, and am not caring for any of my options.

thanks for caring, and for giving me your input.

 

[Dr. Daniel]

Hi
You can have a second opinion with another dentist. The best second opinion would be from a specialist a specialist for root canal treatment (endodontist).
If it sounds too expansive, you might ask for a second opinion in the dental clinic by another dentist. Surely it would be cheaper if not for free.