Hello all,

I came across this forum while desperately searching for some answers after recent dental issues. I will try to keep it brief, but I would greatly appreciate any information and suggestions!

I have not had the greatest dental health. I broke a front tooth while biting a carrot a while back, but I did not have the insurance to fix it. It was foolish to leave it alone and hope brushing, flossing, or mouthwash could have any helpful efffect, but what’s done is done. A couple months ago I scheduled my first dentist appointment in a long time. They took x-rays and began to set up a plan, which included root canals on three front teeth, including the broken one. It took six weeks for the authorization to come through, and finally last week I had the root canal appointment.

During the appointment, my dentist cleaned and filled the broken tooth with no issue, but she said that the tooth on each side was too infected/inflamed and They were still bleeding a little, so she filled them with a medicated fill and temporarily closed them, planning on finishing in a couple days.

I left the appointment with prescriptions for amoxicillin, ibuprofen, and Norco. I wasn’t in pain, but aside from the swelling there seemed to be a lot of pressure in my cheek. Within a couple hours I was really concerned about the pressure, so I called the dentist and she told me to come back to the office. When I got there, she cleaned out the two canals and covered them again and told me it was because of the infection, and if the antibiotics did not kick in and help soon I might have to go to urgent care for an IV antibiotic. That was enough to keep me worried about it.

The next morning her office called me to see how I was, and asked if I could come in to see the dentist again. I was back in the office in a half hour, and she extracted the tooth that she said was most infected and causing problems. I went home still with pressure in my cheek in addition to the swelling from the extraction. By that evening, I was so concerned that I did go to the emergency room, where they told me it was normal and prescribed a new antibiotic, clindamycin, and gave me a penicillin shot.

Friday morning the dentist called me to her office again. She had set up a special referral for me with an oral surgeon that my insurance would not cover, but she was pulling strings for the consultation. When I got there, the Oral surgeon told me he thought that the pressure/swelling in the cheek was because the medicated fill from the root canal had leaked into the surrounding tissue. Since I’d had two fistula develope, he suggested applying heat a few times a day and using my palm to sort of massage the welling down. I left his office at least hopeful that it would go away.

Over the weekend, I had begun to try to eat again, but while taking the clindamycin I developed side effects like heartburn and weird heart rates, which made me miserable. I didn’t stop taking it, though. The swelling and the pressure did go down a lot, and the bruising that also had appeared started to heal.

Now, six days after the root canals, there is still a little numbness/tingling around the pressure on my cheek, the fistula are still present, and yesterday something black came out of one of them. I am concerned about how long the pressure will last and if this is normal. It feels almost like I have something stuck in my gums. It’s not painful, but when I put pressure to massage it down it is a little sore, like a bruise. I can taste something coming out of the fistula sometimes when I massage it. I am trying to remember to rinse with salt water several times a day. My dentist wants to finish the last root canal in two weeks, and advised me to finish out the antibiotics in the meantime.

I guess my biggest question is, how long might this pressure last? When does it become a bigger problem? I have never had dental work done like this before, nothing more than a filling. This is all new to me, and very unsettling. I like to know what’s going on otherwise I tend to freak out.

I appreciate any input you can give, and thanks in advance.