Hi tricia,

Thanks for posting the x-ray.

Tooth #14 is root canaled and there are several things showing on the x-rays.

1) The tooth is diseased and irrelevant of how many times it is root canaled it will continue to be diseased.

2) The pre op xray shows that the bacteria had proliferated beyond the tooth into the bone around the apex (root) of the tooth.

3) The post op xray shows that the same infection is still present in the bone and has possibly communicated with your sinus.

4) It also appears on the post op xray that you are developing a deep pocket at the distal portion of the tooth. This area is in between #14 and 15.

5) During the rc procedure it appears that the dentist perforated the apex (root tip) during instrumentation. That small thin white line at the end of the tooth that kind of looks like a sail indicates either a piece of gutta percha material or a glob of liquid filling material was pushed through the perforation into the bone and possibly into the sinus.

From these xrays it is not possible to determine if the infection and filling material has gone into the sinus. But it is quite possible. This tooth is very close if not into the sinus. It is also possible that you have a cyst surrounding this tooth as well.

The only way to attempt to cure this infection is to have the tooth removed by an oral surgeon. The bone and possibly the sinus would need to be surgically debrided at the time of the extraction.