I was trying to find information about infections and came across this site. I have read that it is better to extract the tooth (#14) than to do another root canal. The question I have is that pain began monday night with a sinus headache on the left side, and through the night, my tooth began to hurt. I attributed this to sinus pressure, and as the day wore on, the pain lessened. I did hear a slight pop in my left ear, and it felt "clogged". Tuesday night the pain was back, and the tooth hurt more and more. Wednesday night I woke up every 2 hours, percocet did nothing for the pain. I saw my dentist, he said I should see the endodontist, and prescribed penicillin. The endo said there is an infection in the root canal and slight bone loss. The options were remove the tooth, and then bridge or implant, or re-do the root canal. She did not say there was no way to completely remove the infection, though. I started taking 800mg ibuprofen as soon as I left there, then the penicillin an hour later. By friday morning, 95% of the pain was gone, and my tooth felt like "it was back in place". Before, it felt like it was being pushed down from above. My left sinus started draining a clear fluid, as if a faucet had opened up. I am now able to again chew on the left side. There is a lot of swelling in my left cheek still. The root canal was done 33 years ago, and this is the first time there has ever been a problem. What would your recommendation be? I'm not sure if this is caused by sinuses or root canal problems. Thank you for any information.