• Dental Phobia Support

    Welcome! This is an online support group for anyone who is has a severe fear of the dentist or dental treatment. Please note that this is NOT a general dental problems or health anxiety forum! You can find a list of them here.

    Register now to access all the features of the forum.

Unsuccessful root canal x 2

C

Ctaylor16

Junior member
Joined
Jun 30, 2020
Messages
11
Location
United States
I am back with more questions as usual. I have had a painful journey over the past year and a half between being diagnosed with Trigeminal neuralgia and atypical odontolgia I have also had 4 root canals, one retreat, crown lengthening on 3 teeth in addition to redoing 3 crowns and having 3 extractions.
I now find myself with two root canals not being successful due to the anatomy and curves of the roots. My next step is to wait and see if they’ll settle and be asymptomatic as the infections are gone and eventually doing an apico. The other option is extractions and an implant, however my neurologist is advising both an apico and an implant might not be the best from a neuralgia standpoint and from all the work I’ve already had done. Any recommendations or insight? I am exhausted and it’s starting to become a financial burden for my family. They are teeth number 3 and 14 (US). Teeth numbers 2 and 15 have already been extracted due to root canal failure with poor prognosis for retreatment. Thank you!
 
Sounds like a nightmare scenario for you. I think "waiting and seeing" is probably the best option at the moment, which is what you're doing.
 
Sounds like a nightmare scenario for you. I think "waiting and seeing" is probably the best option at the moment, which is what you're doing.
Thank you! Out of curiosity, if you don’t mind me asking. I now have another tooth ache in a bottom back molar that I am having checked on Monday. Is it really possible to need 3 root canals (2 new root canals and 1 retreat) all of a sudden within a 3 week period? The X-ray did not show infection but I did have a deep filling in this tooth a year ago. The endo knows I have Trigeminal Neuralgia and usually his indication of me truly needing it is my response to endo ice but I often wonder if that is accurate in my situation. Is there any type of scan I can get that would show inflammation or truly indicate if I needed another root canal or any other questions I should be asking? Sorry to be a bother.
 
An electric pulp test is the most accurate way to find out if the nerve is still alive, but even those can give slightly confusing readings, for instance in a molar one canal can be alive and responsive and the other one dead and stinky! However over time the live canal usually dies off too...
 
I just wanted to offer some support. I was told I have Atypical Odontalgia. My pain came before any dental work and it's just been a cascade of constant pain since. I am not usually anxious but now I have developed dental anxiety.
 
Back
Top