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Scared my RC is failing

N

nicnac

Junior member
Joined
Apr 22, 2017
Messages
17
Hi everyone.

Around 2.5 weeks ago i presented at the dentist with a swollen jaw, a premolar (tooth 29) had a large cavity at the rear of the tooth that had obviously been infected for some time with minimal symptoms. It flared exponentially overnight so i went in urgently. The dentist took xrays and gave me the option of root canal or extraction. I chose RC as i already have 2 missing teeth on my lower left and don't really want to lose teeth on my right.

So the root canal went ahead, i was put on 2 different types of antibiotics (metronidazole and augmetin duo forte) for a duration of 5 days. Once the 5 days was up, the facial swelling had gone down and the tooth felt great! Well i went for 2 days with no pain until the tooth started to niggle. I noticed sensitivity starting especially with cold and it had a weird pulsing/swirling feeling. On a couple of occasions i felt stabbing pain. So i went back to the dentist, he seemed puzzled as he was convinced he had cleaned all the nerve away, but he took another xray, opened the tooth up again and redid the procedure, telling me afterwards that he is 100% sure there is nothing left (it seemed like he did a whole lot more flushing out this time) and that i should be good now until a few weeks time for our next session. He also shaved a little bit off the filling and gave the tooth a clean and mentioned that as i had such a big infection, it will take longer to settle but that's fine as long as it's getting better, not worse.

The tooth felt great again! No issues and i became completely unaware it was there...until exactly a week later, which brings me to now. I am experiencing that niggling feeling again, i would describe it as a very slight ache. The pulsating/swirling feeling has been coming back again. But what really scares me, was tonight while eating my hot dinner, it really started to ache. The ache got prominent enough that i had to go pop some ibuprofen. And the ache continued to linger until the ibuprofen kicked in. Even now with the painkillers in my system, i can feel a slightly tight, swirling sensation, although there is not really an ache anymore. When i tap on it with my finger it is definitely picking up on the percussion, the surrounding teeth have no response to percussion.

I'm seeing the dentist again next week, as i have the next stage of RC booked in. What I'm worried about is that this RC has failed. I've had a few RC's now and none of them have continued to have any sort of sensation weeks after treatment. I definitely acknowledge that there was a huge infection before hand (big enough to make my jaw swell like i was sucking on a medium sized gobstopper), but could this infection still be causing percussion sensitivity and aches (or sensitivity to hot/cold), like he mentioned how it will take longer to heal? Especially seeing as i finished a 5 day course of antibiotics 2 weeks ago. Any advice or opinions would really be appreciated...and thanks for reading my post!
 
The RCT hasn't failed, it isn't finished yet. Until the root filling is in place there's still potential for bacteria to colonise the root space and spill out into the surrounding tissues, which is where the pain comes from.
 
The RCT hasn't failed, it isn't finished yet. Until the root filling is in place there's still potential for bacteria to colonise the root space and spill out into the surrounding tissues, which is where the pain comes from.

Thanks Gordon! I didn't realise there was still potential for pain. I just assumed once the dentist had gone in and done the clean out it would be pain free. You learn something new every day! I was probably worrying as the tooth initially is pain free for a period of time then starts to play up, both times now. But I'll hold off freaking out just yet!
 
It's a very reasonable assumption. Most temporary fillings aren't completely bacteria proof, so the wee buggers can get back into the nerve chamber and cause problems. It's one of the reasons one visit root treatments are getting more popular amongst dentists.
 
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