Hi Kaylea,

I am in the dental profession for 30+ yrs..... frequently patients will describe a burning or radiating pain in the area of a root canaled tooth or in that side of their face. Sometimes it is felt soon after the procedure.... other times it's some time later on. Sometimes the pain is intermittent and other times it's constant.

This is not something to ignore. The fact is that all root canaled teeth are inflamed and infected because for one reason there is no access to the tiny canals which will continue to harbor infected nerve material. Secondly, the blood supply is permanently cut off from the tooth during a root canal, therefore, the tooth can no longer receive nutrition rendering it necrotic and non vital. Thirdly, the inflammation and lack of blood supply causes pressure and irritation to the surrounding bone, nerves and ligaments. So if you think about those three things, it would not be surprising to then have nerve pain from the inflammation and infection. The truth is, root canals are done to "retain" a tooth for an undisclosed amount of time, not "cure" the infection ....as most dentists would like to lead you to believe.

The only chance of eliminating the pain would be to remove the tooth. The longer the tooth is present the more diseased the area will become.

I'm sorry to give you this information as I'm sure your brother was not informed of this prior to the root canal procedure. However, the pain is not stress related and he needs to believe that. It is up to your brother to decide whether he wants to continue with this pain or remove the tooth.

Please let us know how he's doing.

Bryanna