Throbbing pain long after a root canal - need advice

I posted this in the sandbox group but I was ignored.

With good reason.

I'm posting there! Bye!

"What is TRUTH?"

That's a wicked story. Only advice I can give is get a second opinion from another dentist/root canal specialist. Even though you don't have insurance just try to borrow some money and do it. That's the only alternative I can think of, because your situation requires it.


"Did you make coffee...? Make it!"--Cheyenne.

Thanks for the response. I've actually been to 4 different dentists; my general one, an endodontist, an oral surgeon and another general one. Lord knows they've all tried helping me but nothing they've suggested will take the pain away. My next step is to get my wisdom teeth removed hoping that would relieve some pressure because my teeth are very tight but seeing how nothing else has helped, I'm not very hopeful. I might end up having to get the tooth pulled eventually and being that it's a front one, I'd definitely have to get a bridge too. So basically every extra penny I'll be earning at my job the next year will be going to this one damn tooth. Ugh. Most people my age are in debt from buying a house, a new car, starting a family, etc. and here I am with none of those and already in bad debt just from one stupid tooth.

All I can say to that, jayne, is that most often 'whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger', and strength is a major asset/quality to have in this world, as other trials can come your way and you will be more equipped to deal with them. Good luck.


"Did you make coffee...? Make it!"--Cheyenne.

What did you do?

I'll write pretty much the same as I did about the person losing her molar, but you can look at that one in my history, too. I posted it tonight, as well.

First of all, I've had to have a second root canal on the same tooth before. It happens. And I have good doctors so sometimes things just happen like that. Maybe you should go back to the person who did it and see if they give you a cut rate on redoing it. Also, if you have to he the tooth removed find out first if having the wisdom teeth removed will help more. Maybe now it's just that tooth, but it might end up being more over time. I don't know how old you are. I'm having a lot of trouble now (late 40s) despite having my wisdom teeth removed, but I have a crowded mouth and never had any teeth removed when I got braces. My back teeth took forever to fall out and then come in as adult teeth so they gave me headgear instead. It's really difficult to take care of crowded teeth so whatever you do from this point forward look at the end results because you don't get anther set of teeth.

Also, as I mention to the person who lost a back miolar and now thinks it's infected... If you do have a tooth removed then have them do the work to prepare you in the future for a dental implant. Right now they're close to $1,500, but pretty soon they'll be really cheap. And I mean within the next few years. Just look up 3D printing and dental work. Some dentists can already print crowns right in their offices. Soon they'll be able to print an actual copy of any tooth we lose. It's amazing. And while I don't know what the price will be I do know that a bionic arm that previously cost about $75,000 to make can now be made while you wait for around $200. So, can you imagine what a $1,500 tooth will cost? It will feel much better than a bridge. It's much easier for them to prepare that spot now than when you want it, both in terms of cost and pain.

If I want to knock a story off the front page I just change my hairstyle.

My situation is different, before I start. Mine is a continually recurring jaw infection due to my lower jaw (mandibular) molar (first I believe) that had been root canalled. (I thought I was told it was a jaw infection, but someone cast doubt in my mind; that said, it fits the infection to a 't', it is definitely it.)

By the way you describe it, yours is not primarily related to the molar. Besides, if it was a jaw infection you'd describe a different, additional, deep seated pain beneath the tooth proceeding to extend throughout the local region of the jaw. For me, this pain is like a dagger hanging out of your jaw (someone described her jaw infection as like being stabbed in the jaw and I can't think of any other way of describing it), it comes and goes but has lasted non-stop for 3 days one time.

Reading online, it is often described as a throbbing pain, but besides once faintly feeling my blood beat through it for a couple of minutes, it hasn't been throbbing for me. Just one constant.

Of course, were it a jaw infection the infection would be eating away at your jaw, possibly forming pus and giving you trismus (inability to open your mouth due to sore muscles) making opening your mouth even for a spoon and talking difficult. I've read it was frequently fatal before antibiotics, but I have also read this applied to infants not necessarily adults. I also experienced a huge amount of pus build after dousing the first occurence in my front gum, which I believe is a sign that my jaw was becoming necrotic (so much that the gum seemed to almost envelop my tooth!).

Things which are similar including biting down pain (only when the infection is presented or just before the jaw infection becomes dominant) that makes slicing through soft Colby cheese excruciating and cold sensitivity (there with or without the infection but for me has only flared up when the weather became cool).

Another similarity is my root canal was said to have been pretty fantastic. I think what happened was I let an infection go on for too long and then doused it with antibacterial mouth wash. I think it got into the base of the root canal and thrived without my knowing.

I have to get another root canal done on it, but I hear there is only a chance it will be successful. I don't know if my tooth is fractured, the dentist never told me. If it fails, it comes out and I could live the next 40-70 years without a crucial molar.

I'm waiting on the university to get me in, but after 2+ months of waiting I was finally told I had been entered into the waiting queue.  I've had 4 flare ups to date and 5 rounds of antibiotics. My tooth has also been oscillating, expanding and contracting for over a month which means it smashes up against the upper teeth and can be uncomfortable.

Like yours, my tooth problems spread to my other teeth, but that was with the infection that demanded the first root canal. Two other teeth chipped. When my molar became infected last year and I doused it with antibacterial mouthwash, one of my frontal teeth also became infected and was similarly doused. Now no matter how bad the tooth pain is antibacterial mouth wash has zero effect on it. This infection I'm going through hasn't effected the other teeth, but I was super cold sensitive in one of my front teeth for a while when the weather changed at the same time my molar was heat sensitive. Now it seems okay.