Still having lots of pain

[karensue77]

Hi,
I posted yesterday but I didn't receive any replies so I thought I would try again. Do dentists answer any questions on here?
I've had 3 root canals on my 3 lower left molars 18,19 & 20. and I've been in pain for 3 months now and have seen 5 different doctors and not one has yet to help me get out of pain. I had a 2D scan and a 3D scan both of which show that everything is fine.
I can't bite down or chew on my left side and at night I am waking up in pain. There is no infection and I don't have trigeminal neuralgia. What else could be causing this pain? Any suggestions?

 

[ScaredyCat22]

Hi Karen, sometimes dentists answer and sometimes they don't. I posted quite a while ago and never got an answer to my question.
Anyway I am not a dentist but from my own unfortunate experience I can tell you that one of the things that can cause pain in a root canaled tooth is called a vertical root fracture and it does not show up on an xray. I had tooth 19 crowned and root canaled and the constant pain from my ear to my chin never went away. I could not chew on it at all and finally had it extracted at which time the oral surgeon was able to see that it had fractured down to the root.
I hope that is not the case for you because I had to lose my tooth over it.

 

[karensue77]

Thank you ScaredyCat, I'm afraid that is what is wrong with my tooth also. But this wouldn't show up on a 3D cat scan? It does feel like the pain is coming from #19 but I also had root canals on 18 and 20 so the oral surgeon told me he wouldn't know where to start to find my pain. Do you still have tooth #18 or 20? Were you in a lot of pain with the extraction?

Hi Karen, sometimes dentists answer and sometimes they don't. I posted quite a while ago and never got an answer to my question.
Anyway I am not a dentist but from my own unfortunate experience I can tell you that one of the things that can cause pain in a root canaled tooth is called a vertical root fracture and it does not show up on an xray. I had tooth 19 crowned and root canaled and the constant pain from my ear to my chin never went away. I could not chew on it at all and finally had it extracted at which time the oral surgeon was able to see that it had fractured down to the root.
I hope that is not the case for you because I had to lose my tooth over it.

 

[ScaredyCat22]

Thank you ScaredyCat, I'm afraid that is what is wrong with my tooth also. But this wouldn't show up on a 3D cat scan? It does feel like the pain is coming from #19 but I also had root canals on 18 and 20 so the oral surgeon told me he wouldn't know where to start to find my pain. Do you still have tooth #18 or 20? Were you in a lot of pain with the extraction?

I don't know if it would show on 3D scans or not. none was ever offered to me. they just kept taking xrays and telling me it looked fine and that it was not a failed root canal. It actually started with a small chip in a filling. I went to get it repaired which I thought literally meant just adding some filling since there was no additional decay. but they drilled out the entire thing and without my knowledge or permission sunk a metal pin into it to hold the new giant filling. That is what fractured my tooth but I did not know it at the time, I only knew I had constant pain after the Novocain wore off. so they crowned it and when that didn't help they root canaled it and finally after 3 months of agony I had it extracted. I do still have tooth 18 and 20 so unlike you I was able to know for sure which tooth was causing the pain even though every tooth on that side of my face hurt.
I had hardly any pain after the extraction.

did you have crowns put on after the root canals? and if so did they check your bite to make sure none of the crowns are too high? if any are hitting too hard when you bite down that could cause pain as well and eventually it would be pain all the time not just when chewing because the ligament under the tooth would get inflamed from hitting so hard all the time.

 

[karensue77]

Hi again and thanks for your reply!
#19 still has a crown on it, he did the root canal through the crown. He took off the crown on #18 thinking that it was causing my pain but he couldn't save the crown so now I need a new crown on #18 and a crown on #20. I am going to the dentist next Thursday and I am going to see if he can sand that crown down more because it just feels like it is in the way and it does hurt when it touches the top teeth. Sounds like your experience with #19 was not very pleasant either!!! My tooth #19 under the crown also has pins in it from 1978 when a crown was first put on due to very deep decay.

How long have you been pain free now? I can't wait for that day! Actually today I have had very little pain, it seems like most of the pain now comes from being aggravated by eating.

Thanks again for taking the time to reply, I appreciate it.

I don't know if it would show on 3D scans or not. none was ever offered to me. they just kept taking xrays and telling me it looked fine and that it was not a failed root canal. It actually started with a small chip in a filling. I went to get it repaired which I thought literally meant just adding some filling since there was no additional decay. but they drilled out the entire thing and without my knowledge or permission sunk a metal pin into it to hold the new giant filling. That is what fractured my tooth but I did not know it at the time, I only knew I had constant pain after the Novocain wore off. so they crowned it and when that didn't help they root canaled it and finally after 3 months of agony I had it extracted. I do still have tooth 18 and 20 so unlike you I was able to know for sure which tooth was causing the pain even though every tooth on that side of my face hurt.
I had hardly any pain after the extraction.

did you have crowns put on after the root canals? and if so did they check your bite to make sure none of the crowns are too high? if any are hitting too hard when you bite down that could cause pain as well and eventually it would be pain all the time not just when chewing because the ligament under the tooth would get inflamed from hitting so hard all the time.