Tooth “headache”

[Kitty84]

Getting myself very anxious about this and not sure what to try next.

Basically about 12 ish years ago I had a filling done on a top molar. It’s pretty big and from looking in mirror it seems to take up the whole of the bite surface - the side that meets with your bottom teeth if that makes sense. There is “real” tooth around all the other sides of the filling. It was done at the same time I was under GA for my wisdom teeth coming out (no room for them).

Ever since I’ve had this filling I’ve had headaches like what feels like above it behind my eye and forehead on that side. Sometimes they are horrendous and make me feel like I want to smack my head on something (counter intuative I know). The bone above and at the side of my eye hurts to touch when it happens. Then it will go all of a sudden.

I’ve struggled with going to the dentist since childhood with horrible fear for a few reasons. So I’ve not always been regularly. After being forced into going about 18 months ago to have a filling under sedation I’ve been going 6 monthly as I trust this dentist and his nurse a lot. Gutted they moved out of NHS to private care but it’s worth it 100% to stay with them. But also means that potential treatment options will be budget limited.

I’ve explained about this tooth and the last 3 visits - and the dentist I saw before I was referred to him with the other tooth can’t find anything wrong with it. It’s been xrayed a few times now. It is a big filling but it’s not “touching the nerve” apparantly. Though I was told if I left it any longer It would be a root canal.

Could this tooth be causing headaches? Would just taking it out make it go away in that case? It’s literally agony when it happens. Is there stuff that doesn’t show up on xray that could be happening? Amalgam filling if that makes any difference.

I do wake up with jaw pain often - feels very tense. Dentist doesn’t see signs of grinding. But when I first wake up it all feels very wonky like my teeth don’t meet together, it’s like off a bit with everything feeling “moved over a tooth”.

I’m sorry for the essay. Any ideas what to do next? Acupuncture in my forehead got rid of the headache at one point if that’s any kind of clue.

Thank you very much

 

[Gordon]

Sounds like a TMJ issue rather than the tooth. https://www.dentalfearcentral.org/faq/tmj-pain/

You may not be grinding your teeth but you could be clenching them together (which is sometimes less damaging to the actual teeth but causes other symptoms).

A physiotherapist might be some help in improving the symptoms, they do great work with joints, including the TMJ.

 

[Kitty84]

Thank you Gordon I never thought about a physio for TMJ but I will look in to this now as my next step. Always appreciate the help from you guys on here.