scoopy, it sounds like you and I are suffering the same complaint. Tooth #12 had had a root canal 3 1/2 years ago. It always hurt. During July the pain increased. My family dentist and I had talked over the years about the possibility of the root being cracked. He said no way to tell on an xray only way to know was to pull it. Anyway, I had the tooth extracted and knew immediately that something was wrong. Burning and stinging in mouth, sinuses and eyes. My sense of smell was off (the air conditioning smelled like burning chemicals - thank heavens that symptom resolved itself). Bridge of nose felt like I'd been hit with a baseball bat. All of my upper teeth hurt. Hurt in ethmoid sinuses, top of head, back of neck. Was in AGONIZING pain. Five trips to the ER. Got a referral to a neurologist who diagnosed "atypical facial pain" and started me on amitriptyline.

Today is day 30 of my journey in pain. These are current symptoms -

1. Constant pain in area of extraction.
2. Teeth #11, 13, 14, 15 are numb.
3. All of top teeth ache, but especially front teeth.
4. Pain from front teeth up to bridge of nose.
5. Pain on left cheekbone.
6. Some numbness along jawline.

Pain level goes from a 3 to a 7 based on this scale tipna.org/info/documents/ComparativePainScale (I'm new here and it won't let me post links yet. Put the www in front and the dot html at the end to find the site I am referencing.)


None of the opiate based pain relievers work on this. I tried Darvocet, Hydrocodone, Tylenol with codeine, Dilaudid, and Oxycodone.

The amitriptyline has reduced the pain from the constant 7 to 9 that I'd had before seeing the neurologist. I take it about 6 or 7 o'clock so that I am allowing myself plenty of time to sleep off the sedative effects of the medication. I started at 25mg per night and increased the dosage to 50mg. At 25mg I did not have too much trouble waking the next morning, but at 50mg it takes me almost an hour to get out of bed and another 2 hours to feel like I'm not in a fog. It also has had a slow down effect on my intestinal tract. The amitriptyline by itself is not keeping the pain at bay at this point in time, but I've only been taking it since August 25th. I understand that it takes weeks for it to build up in your system. When I wake up in the morning the pain is about a 3. But the longer I'm up and the more I have to talk, the pain level goes up.

Sure wish I could go back to Aug 6th and NOT have that tooth pulled.