T
toraflora
Member
Heads up, this might be long, but this has been something really affecting my mental health and every moment of my life (friendships, relationships, career, everything) for the past 15 months that has not been resolved.
In April of last year, I bit too hard on a cherry pit and cracked the pit open, and my canine tooth and the tooth behind it has felt weird after that. In following days, it felt painful when I bit down with those two teeth, and when I tried biting on my finger (to test it), it hurt when I released the bite, which was a strong indication of cracked teeth. I went to get it checked at dentist #1, and she made me bite on a bite stick (no pain then), and after an X-ray, we saw nothing.
This issue didn’t resolve as the toothache was still there, and the sensitivity just increased. I went to get it checked at my main dentist (dentist #2), who took an X-ray and did bite tests. He said he couldn’t see anything obvious, but there may or may not be a crack that we can’t clearly tell.
In the following month, the sensitivity was still there, and since, I’ve never chewed on the left side of the mouth with the affected teeth. I went abroad in China and it was causing a lot of anxiety — so much to the point where there wasn’t a single minute of my life during that vacation where I didn’t think about the tooth/teeth. So I went to a hospital in China, where the dentist there couldn’t identify anything obvious and did some laser thing to apparently help with the sensitivity.
One month later, I still never got over the problem. I was so fed up mentally and went to an endodontist to get it checked. He used a microscope, did some probing/hitting of the teeth, used something really cold to test sensitivity, and found no obvious signs. He recommended Sensodyne and said it should be gone in a few weeks.
Then I went to college and the ache was still there. The pain was never unbearable, it’s just uncomfortable and still never chewed on the left side (to this day). I’m still so convinced it is a crack, but because I visited so many dentists (there could have been 2 more but so many I forgot) that I feel so hopeless in not finding an answer and using up all my family’s flexible spendings to get no answers. In January of this year, I went again to doctor #2 to get my teeth cleaned. He didn’t thoroughly check it but I mentioned the teeth to him and he just said there wasn’t anything wrong and “seems fine.” I never thought of it much because it was just annoying (and even though it was ALWAYS ON MY MIND, it never was too painful).
This is the situation right now. This past week, I’ve been getting mild headaches and I feel like the cheek or sinus (or maybe I’m just “hallucinating” like my parents are telling me) are uncomfortable/a bit painful in addition to getting toothaches again. I always found that wearing my retainers helps with the toothaches and makes it go away. I searched it up and freaked out - it doesn’t help that in addition to this really annoying problem, I have extremely bad anxiety when it comes to health and teeth. Honestly, there is not a single minute of my life spent without somewhat thinking or worrying about these teeth. For the PAST 15 MONTHS. I am a full-time college student and working part-time and I can’t afford to have this make me feel like this anymore. Sometimes when I get really anxious, I lose my appetite and cannot focus at all.
In addition to not having a clear solution, my parents have not been helpful. They keep saying that I have psychological issues (which might be true), but keep insisting that it is not a crack and I am making things up. They keep bringing up that I already went to over 4/5 different dentists and didn’t get an answer that it was a crack/something wrong, so there must not be anything wrong. No matter how much I voice my concern to them, they keep saying that I need to seek a psychologist.
LASTLY, people have been telling me a solution would be root canal/extraction. I may already seem like a freak from all I’ve said already, but getting a root canal will only add to my current anxiety. I have extreme fear over root canals (I already have one from 3/4 years ago) after going through a statistics course that implied that root canals could cause autoimmune disease/cancers down the line. I’ve heard arguments against this case, but some of the data is quite convincing. My statistics teacher told me that he went to a conference about this, and the speaker (after telling him he had issues with his gallbladder and some skin cancer on his right cheek) was able to immediately identify what tooth he had a root canal in, that was causing the issues—and he guessed correctly. Turns out some people I know have reported similar experiences. Having 1 root canal already causes enough anxiety for me — now adding on two more I’m afraid would be unbearable. It also doesn’t help that every single person I know with a root canal has either have it 1) fail eventually or 2) the person now has a cancer/autoimmune disease after a long period of time. I know correlation may not be causation, but this doesn’t prove it completely false either. (There’s also a banned Netflix documentary called Root Cause similar to this).
It just pains me to think that after visiting SO many dentists, I can’t find a SINGLE solution— it’s like either do nothing or just go HAM by getting a root canal or extraction. I don’t even know if I should visit a different dentist after visiting so many, and especially during COVID19 times too. I DON’T want this to get worse both health-wise and mentally, and as I am writing this right now, I am sobbing and shaking so much in fear.
I am so sorry for this HUGE amount of text, and thank you for listening to me. I don’t know what to do and I can’t seem to get over this horrific thing (maybe it’s not a big deal and I seem 100% psychotic but it’s REALLY harming my life right now) that’s been here for the last 15 months. Every single moment of my life. My relationships, friendships, interests, EVERYTHING has been completely wrecked by this stupid teeth issue. And I’m praying for a solution that’s not a root canal. I just don’t know what to do right now - I feel so helpless. I don't even know if I should keep another dentist - I don’t know where to find a new one, and even if I do, how do I tell him/her all this. I just don’t know what to do. And I’m scared I have a ticking time bomb.
TL
R - Insane anxiety from potentially undiagnosed crack teeth and root canal fear for the past 15 months (that’s been taking a HUGE mental toll on me) and now it might have gotten worse and I can’t find a solution.
In April of last year, I bit too hard on a cherry pit and cracked the pit open, and my canine tooth and the tooth behind it has felt weird after that. In following days, it felt painful when I bit down with those two teeth, and when I tried biting on my finger (to test it), it hurt when I released the bite, which was a strong indication of cracked teeth. I went to get it checked at dentist #1, and she made me bite on a bite stick (no pain then), and after an X-ray, we saw nothing.
This issue didn’t resolve as the toothache was still there, and the sensitivity just increased. I went to get it checked at my main dentist (dentist #2), who took an X-ray and did bite tests. He said he couldn’t see anything obvious, but there may or may not be a crack that we can’t clearly tell.
In the following month, the sensitivity was still there, and since, I’ve never chewed on the left side of the mouth with the affected teeth. I went abroad in China and it was causing a lot of anxiety — so much to the point where there wasn’t a single minute of my life during that vacation where I didn’t think about the tooth/teeth. So I went to a hospital in China, where the dentist there couldn’t identify anything obvious and did some laser thing to apparently help with the sensitivity.
One month later, I still never got over the problem. I was so fed up mentally and went to an endodontist to get it checked. He used a microscope, did some probing/hitting of the teeth, used something really cold to test sensitivity, and found no obvious signs. He recommended Sensodyne and said it should be gone in a few weeks.
Then I went to college and the ache was still there. The pain was never unbearable, it’s just uncomfortable and still never chewed on the left side (to this day). I’m still so convinced it is a crack, but because I visited so many dentists (there could have been 2 more but so many I forgot) that I feel so hopeless in not finding an answer and using up all my family’s flexible spendings to get no answers. In January of this year, I went again to doctor #2 to get my teeth cleaned. He didn’t thoroughly check it but I mentioned the teeth to him and he just said there wasn’t anything wrong and “seems fine.” I never thought of it much because it was just annoying (and even though it was ALWAYS ON MY MIND, it never was too painful).
This is the situation right now. This past week, I’ve been getting mild headaches and I feel like the cheek or sinus (or maybe I’m just “hallucinating” like my parents are telling me) are uncomfortable/a bit painful in addition to getting toothaches again. I always found that wearing my retainers helps with the toothaches and makes it go away. I searched it up and freaked out - it doesn’t help that in addition to this really annoying problem, I have extremely bad anxiety when it comes to health and teeth. Honestly, there is not a single minute of my life spent without somewhat thinking or worrying about these teeth. For the PAST 15 MONTHS. I am a full-time college student and working part-time and I can’t afford to have this make me feel like this anymore. Sometimes when I get really anxious, I lose my appetite and cannot focus at all.
In addition to not having a clear solution, my parents have not been helpful. They keep saying that I have psychological issues (which might be true), but keep insisting that it is not a crack and I am making things up. They keep bringing up that I already went to over 4/5 different dentists and didn’t get an answer that it was a crack/something wrong, so there must not be anything wrong. No matter how much I voice my concern to them, they keep saying that I need to seek a psychologist.
LASTLY, people have been telling me a solution would be root canal/extraction. I may already seem like a freak from all I’ve said already, but getting a root canal will only add to my current anxiety. I have extreme fear over root canals (I already have one from 3/4 years ago) after going through a statistics course that implied that root canals could cause autoimmune disease/cancers down the line. I’ve heard arguments against this case, but some of the data is quite convincing. My statistics teacher told me that he went to a conference about this, and the speaker (after telling him he had issues with his gallbladder and some skin cancer on his right cheek) was able to immediately identify what tooth he had a root canal in, that was causing the issues—and he guessed correctly. Turns out some people I know have reported similar experiences. Having 1 root canal already causes enough anxiety for me — now adding on two more I’m afraid would be unbearable. It also doesn’t help that every single person I know with a root canal has either have it 1) fail eventually or 2) the person now has a cancer/autoimmune disease after a long period of time. I know correlation may not be causation, but this doesn’t prove it completely false either. (There’s also a banned Netflix documentary called Root Cause similar to this).
It just pains me to think that after visiting SO many dentists, I can’t find a SINGLE solution— it’s like either do nothing or just go HAM by getting a root canal or extraction. I don’t even know if I should visit a different dentist after visiting so many, and especially during COVID19 times too. I DON’T want this to get worse both health-wise and mentally, and as I am writing this right now, I am sobbing and shaking so much in fear.
I am so sorry for this HUGE amount of text, and thank you for listening to me. I don’t know what to do and I can’t seem to get over this horrific thing (maybe it’s not a big deal and I seem 100% psychotic but it’s REALLY harming my life right now) that’s been here for the last 15 months. Every single moment of my life. My relationships, friendships, interests, EVERYTHING has been completely wrecked by this stupid teeth issue. And I’m praying for a solution that’s not a root canal. I just don’t know what to do right now - I feel so helpless. I don't even know if I should keep another dentist - I don’t know where to find a new one, and even if I do, how do I tell him/her all this. I just don’t know what to do. And I’m scared I have a ticking time bomb.
TL
