Sinus Communication...Wasn't Even Warned About It!

[kellieo]

@BingBang hi! I’m a new member who just joined and I came across your post by just reading some of the most recent ones . I don’t have any advice or anything but I did have sinus surgery due to a collapsed sinus a few years ago. My question is … how did the root of your teeth , 3 of them at that , go into your sinuses?!?!? I’m mind blown that can even happen. Or idk I would think that maybe when your younger and losing baby teeth or starting to grow adult teeth that maybe that could but how / why did it suddenly happen to you? I’m not sure if you know the answer but I was just curious!! It’s crazy some of the things that you hear about happening . I hope it’s all taken care of and you’re feeling better ! So scary!

 

[Gordon]

It's just simple anatomy. The sinus is a large empty space in the jaw bone, as you can see in the image above, the top of the roots of the upper molars are quite close to the floor of the sinus. If the sinus is bigger than average or the roots are slightly longer then they can poke through the floor.

 

[BingBang]

Hello Gordon, it's been awhile but I'm still here. I visited another OS a couple of weeks ago and he said it it doesn't look like it is healing as fast as expected but not 100% sure why. He said if it is a sinus communication they wait 6 months (!!) for it to heal on its own before doing surgery. Not sure how I will be able to deal with this for that long. It's so hard to never blow your nose and just the other day I forgot myself and didn't open my mouth when sneezing. I could potentially keep opening up any possible communication.

I also went ahead and got the CT scan yesterday that the ENT doctor ordered. I got the results in my portal today but haven't heard back from the doctor yet. It seems like they did see something abnormal but I don't know what it means. Here is what it says:

There are 3 adjacent small rounded shaped hypodensities in the posterior left maxillary alveolar process, compatible with
the socket of the reported extracted molar tooth. There is evidence of erosion of the buccal cortex at the region of resected
molar tooth root. There is no conspicuous evidence of cortical erosion at the left maxillary sinus floor. There is no abnormal
enhancement or fluid collection in this region. Bilateral paranasal sinuses are clear.

The evidence of erosion of the buccal cortex at the resected area. All I know is that something is definitely not right with this extraction. I still have occasional bad taste in my mouth and ongoing throat irritation on that side below the extraction site.

Any insight you can provide is greatly appreciated and I will also update when I hear back from my ENT. The OS is having me follow up on July 23 also. Thanks for being there!

 

[Gordon]

It's so hard to never blow your nose and just the other day I forgot myself and didn't open my mouth when sneezing. I could potentially keep opening up any possible communication.

I'm not sure that it's possible to open up the communication, I understand being careful for the first 24 hrs or so but beyond that I'm not convinced it's a thing.

It doesn't sound as if there's any pathology visible on the CT scan, so I'm not sure if I can be much help here. Be interesting to hear what the ENT surgeon says about it.

 

[BingBang]

Well, I saw the maxillofacial surgeon yesterday to follow up from my first appointment with him a month ago. It has been 9 weeks since my tooth extraction and he said he still sees granulation tissue there and it should be completely healed by now, but for some reason it isn't. He suspects a "pinhole" sinus communication since it isn't visible on the CT or by eye. He said it could possibly be a piece of bone in there keeping it from healing also but it didn't show on the CT. But something definitely isn't right.

At the first visit he said to wait 6 months from the extraction to do any surgery but yesterday he said since the symptoms are bothersome to me that we could schedule the buccal flap surgery in a month (early September). I don't know if I should just try to stick it out a bit longer, especially since the cost of the surgery comes to almost $3,000! I don't have dental insurance so that is a lot of money. Plus I can't help but wonder if my original OS had handled this appropriately from the start I wouldn't be going through all of this and incurring extra expenses. Plus the thought of another invasive procedure in my mouth doesn't thrill me at all. I'm really bummed out about the whole thing...

 

[Gordon]

3000 dollars? Wish I hadn't retired It's your call but for that amount of money I'd wait!

 

[BingBang]

Yeah, I've pretty much decided that I will. My throat irritation has gotten a bit better - not gone yet - but it has improved. So as long as I don't have sinusitis or anything like that, I guess I can wait. I don't know what the chance of it healing after all of this time is, but I'll be praying. Otherwise that $3,000 will still be waiting for me.