Tooth made a popping noise—did I crack it?

[sunbear]

Hello! Long time forum reader but first time asking a question. This forum has helped so much over the past couple years while getting my oral health back to a good place.

I had an emergency root canal performed on tooth #31 (I think) in early August because I was in a lot of pain after a cavity reached the root. I also have all 4 wisdom teeth with impaction and my lower right wisdom was pressing right against my molar. The dentist performed the root canal (I survived!!) and said I'd need to remove my wisdom teeth with an oral surgeon before he would crown the tooth. My insurance is done for the year so I've been saving money to get that done.

My dentist advised not chewing on that side and I haven't and the tooth is filled but is flat. Yesterday, my teeth made contact and I heard a POP! sound, sort of like when a joint pops. It felt like it came from the "naked" root canal side of my mouth. There was no pain. I immediately started poking and prodding, checking for cracks, but I don't see anything visual on the surface. Slowly over the day it started feeling sore but not excruciating. I'm still feeling it today but I'm also massaging my jaw. When I lightly massage my tongue on #31 it feels like a bruise. I'm trying to leave my teeth alone and stop poking them.

Questions:

1. What is the likelihood that I cracked my tooth? Is it possible that the pop was a red herring?
2. I'm actively looking for an oral surgeon to remove my wisdoms. What's the likelihood that, if I have a cracked tooth, my tooth will fall out once the impacted wisdom is removed?

I could hardly sleep last night panicking about the procedures and I'm angry that I've spent so much emotional energy and money on the root canal just to lose it. I've done a lot of crying today. Appreciate all of your help.

 

[sunbear]

Dropping in to say that I've gone ahead and scheduled a consultation with my dentist today to see if we can take a closer look. I'm worried about my dentist being disappointed that I haven't got my wisdom teeth removed so I'm ramping up my anxiety.

 

[sunbear]

Dentist wasn’t disappointed! He also isn’t sure that I cracked it. I moved my wisdom removal to tomorrow and I’m panicking.

What was that loud noise? Any idea? It was like popping bubble wrap but deeper. A very strong “pop!” sound.

 

[Gordon]

Most likely a click from the TM joint they can be quite loud.

 

[sunbear]

Thanks, Gordon! I suspect the poking and prodding I did on the root canal tooth didn’t help the ache afterwards.

Heading to my wisdom removal now. ?

 

[Gordon]

How did you get on then?

 

[sunbear]

Hey Gordon, thanks for asking! Wisdom removal went very well, I'd say. Makes me feel silly for putting it off all these years.

I was provided with a mild sedative for relaxation then provided with propofol before the procedure started so I don't remember anything. I've had mild pain in my impacted tooth socket (it was sideways) next to the tooth with RCT and dreading getting dry socket so I'm doing my best to take good care of it. No pain in the other 3 sockets.

I wasn't able to eat yesterday or drink much because as soon as water touched the impacted socket it started bleeding badly. Things seem well today! A bit of a bloody taste in my mouth sometimes but no cause for concern. I'm avoiding looking at the sockets so I don't start to worry about whether the clot is there. I'll let my pain levels decide that, I suppose, unless you think I should keep a close eye on them.

Appreciate your + everyone's support here. This forum is helping me to conquer my fear.

 

[Gordon]

Well done you!

You don't need to do anything with the sockets, if you were to get a dry socket you would know all about it.

It's pretty unlikely now after this length of time, they generally make themselves obvious as soon as the local has worn off...

 

[sunbear]

Hi Dr. Gordon! I wanted to get an opinion from you about the state of my tooth and my pain level. On Tuesday I noticed that a big chunk of my RCT molar #31 was missing. It looks like the oral surgeon accidentally took off the top and back part of the tooth that rested against the impacted molar. I wasn't informed of this after I woke up from surgery but I did notice something didn't feel right back there a few hours after the procedure but figured it was swelling making that tooth feel weird like part of it was missing.

I've had virtually 0 pain in the rest of my mouth and a 5-6 in pain coming from the impacted #32. This week I started having pretty severe aching coming from that tooth area (jaw as well) and saw my dentist Tuesday afternoon who said the tooth still appeared to be sealed and that there was plenty of tooth left to finish the crown. He didn't see a dry socket or infection in #31. My dentist thinks that the pain is part of the normal healing process and should subside soon. It's now been 9 days since my extractions and I'm still feeling increasingly dull pain on that side of my jaw. It's controlled with ibuprofin and tylenol and #31 is sensitive when pressed, like a bruised feeling.

Questions:

1. Does this increasing pain sound like something I need to be concerned about? Or it'll go away in time? I did just have a tooth yanked out of my skull!
2. Should I bring up the chipped tooth with the oral surgeon or is this part of the risk taken when extracting an impacted tooth?

My crown is scheduled in 4 weeks and I'm hoping things will calm down by then, but it's very uncomfortable. I'd like to get off the medications if possible (I had a surgery that makes me at risk of ulcers with too much ibuprofin).

Here's the best photo I could get of the tooth in question.

• Tuesday (left)
• Today (Thursday) (right)

There's also a white buildup in that socket that started yesterday, I assume it's granulation tissue. Sorry for the quality!

 

[Gordon]

1) Nope, it sounds pretty normal to me.
2) Yes, they should have mentioned it to you and if it happened during the surgery then they should at least have apologised afterwards.
Looks like granulation tissue.

 

[sunbear]

appreciate your insight as always! Will keep medicating and hope the pain will subside soon.

 

[sunbear]

Hey friends, wanted to give a positive update and end to this story! I figured it'd be a nice thing to do in case someone stumbled on this thread with a similar issue and fear.

I was in pretty considerable and increasing dull pain after my last post here November 5th. I kept taking maximum safe dose of Ibuprofin and Tylenol together as often as I could which controlled the pain well. I was also permitted to wear my mouth guard again which is something that I didn't mention here, and I believe I was also clenching terribly at night due to stress about the pain (which caused more stress!).

Seemingly out of the blue, I woke up on November 9th, exactly two weeks from the day of my extraction, and the pain had greatly subsided. A little bit of a "zing" or a dull ache here or there that was solved with 200mg Ibuprofin twice a day. By Thursday, Nov. 11 the pain had all but disappeared and I took one Tylenol to keep the edge off. Today is Nov. 12th and I haven't felt pain at all.

I wanted to say that it does get better—hang in there and keep supporting each other. We've got this!