I recently had a root canal about six weeks ago now. In some ways, I'm not entirely sure I needed the root canal because the pulp wasn't infected and I only had a cavity which they deemed as "deep". In any case, I went ahead with the root canal and then had planned to get the temporary filling removed at about 2-3 weeks and have the permanent filling placed, but after a week I still had a lot of swelling and pain. I went back to the endodontist who assured me it was just due to inflammation and that nothing else was wrong. She had me take take a bunch of anti-inflammatory drugs to remedy this problem. It seemed to help for a week or two but now I'm back to where I started.

In the meantime, I assumed I would have my tooth issue taken care of quickly after the root canal and so I went ahead with plans to try and conceive. (I wish I knew then that the root canal wouldn't be so simple like everyone suggested!!) In any case, I am now in the early stages of my pregnancy with concerns that my root canal is infected. (I've read through these boards and have seen that they are technically always infected... wish I knew that earlier too!). I have an appointment with the regular dentist tomorrow to place the permanent filling and to be fitted for a crown. I'm hoping she will still do the permanent filling because I think this temporary needs to be replaced no matter what. Then I'm really hoping that they will be willing to do an x-ray so that we can see the extent of the infection or whatever is causing the swelling. The problem is, many dentists won't do much of anything until a person is in their second trimester. So what should I do if they refuse to do an x-ray? I am more concerned with a possible infection than I am with an x-ray.

Do you think it would be safe to wait until the second trimester if they refuse to treat it? I'm not in a lot of pain or anything and the swelling seems to wax and wane (I have read that's not always a good indication of the extent of an infection though). At this point, I think I would really just like to have the tooth extracted, but I'm afraid that won't be an option for me for 2.5 more months. Any advice on what I should do? I am really anxious over a possible infection spreading to the baby, but I don't know what to do at this point:/

Thanks!!