Ok, so I went to the oral surgeon's office today.

I told him my story and his diagnosis was that the pain could be due to the tooth infection or it might not be. But he agreed the tooth was infected. He offered an apicoectomy or an extraction as two possible options. I listened while he explained both options. It seemed to me that extraction offered a higher success rate than the apicoectomy. If I did the apicoectomy, there's a chance the tooth could fail and I would end up extracting it anyway.

I opted for the extraction because I wanted more certainty and besides with the implant, I'll still have a "tooth" there eventually.

I went the general anesthesia route and it was amazingly fast. I don't remember drifting off or waking up, compared to previous surgeries I had. It was literally like someone hit pause and then play again. One moment they were sticking the needle into my arm, and the next minute I see him stitching me up. Amazing job, no pain at all other than the normal swollen feeling.

The oral surgeon said he removed everything including the ligament and cleaned up everything. Prior to the operation, he did a cone beam scan and said he didn't see anything noteworthy with the sinus, just maybe a thickening of the mucus as a reaction to the tooth infection. He said it was possible one of the roots was draining into the sinus maybe that's why my condition was stable for so long. Otherwise normally, you would develop gum fistulas.

After the operation, he said he didn't have to deal with the sinus at all as there was still a bone socket there. From the film, there was about 7mm of bone left in that area.

He did do some bone grafting in preparation for a future implant. I'm suppose to go back in four months to get the implant. He said he might have to do a sinus lift then also but we'll see in four months. But it looks like it'll take a full 8 months before I get the actual tooth as you need to wait an additional four months after they put the implant in.

Anyway, it looks like I just need to sit back and wait for things to subside and hopefully, that original pain will fade.

Special thanks to Bryanna for your advice and comments. I really hope this was all worth it, but even if it doesn't, it was worth a shot anyway, especially considering all the other things I tried.