Hi dnd1980,

I understand that he has several dental issues going on at the same time. Very difficult to deal with and the constant pain is certainly debilitating.

What your dentist has obviously not informed you of is that the root canal is NOT going to cure the infection. The symptoms, the pain, may subside temporarily but it will flare up again as the infection will still be present. A root canal procedure does not remove all of the infected nerve tissue because there are hundreds of tiny canals that are not visible and not accessible. So the infection continues to brew in those canals. The only way to attempt to remove the infection is to remove the source of the infection which is the tooth.

Also there is obviously little tooth structure left if they are putting in a post. Posts cause teeth to fracture and it is common for decay to occur around the post. This tooth is not healthy and will never be healthy.

The xray that will be taken in a week or so of this tooth will not indicate the severity of the infection unless it is large enough to have caused bone loss. So if that has not occurred yet, the xray will not be of diagnostic use as it will not show the infected nerve tissue that still remains in the tooth. I am sorry that your dentist did not inform you of this information.

I am sorry that your BF has had so many dental problems. I know he just wants to be out of pain. But there is so much more to his situation than he realizes and he will continue to have pain and infection as long as he retains infected teeth.

I can only offer you the information that his dentist has not. I can only hope that sooner than later his dental problems are over and he feels well again.

Bryanna







Thank you for your reply. They did not mention that 18 was near the sinus. That was what at one point they thought it was when they thought the pain was coming from the upper wisdom tooth extraction, but the dental surgeon ruled it out. We went back to the regular dentist today since we could not wait to get this fixed since it is so bad. He did more xrays and said that the tooth is infected and sitting on a nerve and thought a root canal would fix it. He started the root canal today and cleaned it out i guess. Will insert post on next appointment. He also mentioned the molar next to it needs to be removed, but that will be done at a later time.

We have done a full oral exam with this dentist and have been getting all of the problems fixed. Unfortunately its all done one at a time. This issue started after all the work was already happening. In fact this tooth had a large filling done within the last 6 months. I don't know when exactly because he has had multiple fillings. Do you think the root canal will at least stop the excruciating pain he has been having for now? On our next appointment we can maybe ask for xrays and when it shows as still infected ask him to take it out. Our main concern is not being able to function or sleep due to the pain. It's been the worst 5 days of my life and it's not even my pain. Just watching what he is going through and not knowing what to do.[/QUOTE]