TMD? Or something wrong with root canal/crown?

[Ottosmomma]

I’ll try and make this succinct. Tooth 31 had an old inlay that was sensitive to cold, this was 3 months ago. I had the tooth crowned. Immediately after starting having terrible nerve pain and required a root canal and new crown the next week. Tooth had a hard time recovering from the root canal, I couldn’t bite normal food for a couple weeks without bad pain. Slowly it got better and was mostly good for a couple months. Then this week hard food like crusty bread starts hurting to chew. The pain extends and sort of surrounds my jaw area near tooth 31. I go back to my dentist who did the root canal and crown. He says x ray shows inflamed area near bottom of back root. He suggests endo consult. I have the endo consult, he says he doesn’t believe it’s the tooth but basically says it’s a pulled muscle or TMD essentially from all the dental work (I had 31 root canal and crown in one 4 hour session and my mouth was open the entire time, however, that was 3 months ago and symptoms had improved until recently). I also had a 3D X-ray that didn’t show anything concerning. So, now I’m just wearing a tooth splint at night and told to eat soft food and that basically it’s a pulled muscle. I don’t know. The tooth doesn’t hurt directly, only when chewing. Does the Endo’s opinion seem correct? Will rest and soft food truly fix this?

 

[Gordon]

TMD is very difficult to diagnose accurately, what your endo is suggesting sounds like a sensible thing to do. Rest and soft diet with a splint will generally improve TMD.

 

[Ottosmomma]

TMD is very difficult to diagnose accurately, what your endo is suggesting sounds like a sensible thing to do. Rest and soft diet with a splint will generally improve TMD.

I’ll give it a try, it just seems so vague. But I guess we shall see. Both my dentist and the endo said they did see a little inflammation near on root tip, but both seemed unsure that would be the cause of my pain.

 

[Gordon]

Unfortunately sometimes you can't have a black and white answer to a problem where biological processes are involved.