Celeste,

The endodontist performs root canals for a living. He is not going to tell you that the tooth is infected unless you have an abscess because for him to admit that root canaled teeth are always infected, would not be good for his livelihood. So although his diagnosis has confused you, the fact remains that the many hundreds of tiny canals in your tooth contain infected nerve tissue. I will attach a diagram for you to see just how many of those canals there are in your tooth. They are called dentin tubules.

It is VERY common for people to NOT have "tooth" pain with a tooth infection. Especially root canaled teeth because the blood supply has been cut off and the live pulp chamber has been removed. The tooth may feel uncomfortable, loose, painful or nothing.

You could also be having pain from the musculature area near the TMJ because you had your mouth open wide for a length of time. But that would be an additional problem to the already infected rc tooth.

Yes, I know of countless patients who have all sorts of pain due to their root canaled tooth because the infection and inflammation from the tooth is irritating to the adjoining nerves in the bone, face, head, etc. The patients that get the best relief are those that remove the tooth sooner than later because once the nerve irritation progresses to other branches of nerves, a long term neuralgia can develop even after the tooth is removed.

An excellent book about root canaled teeth written for the lay person and by a dentist and a cardiologist is called The Toxic Tooth by Dr Kulacz and Dr Levy. It will provide you all the answers you are seeking.

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