Originally Posted by Tabutts

Hi Bryanna,

I found this thread while looking up reasons for my recent symptoms. I am a 19 year old female and I just got two of my wisdom teeth (bottom ones) removed at my normal dentist on March 3rd 2015. They were impacted and causing me pain on the left side. It's been 8 days since extraction (which my dentist said went well) but I started to experience additional pain 3 days ago. I'm not sure of what is causing the pain, but it is affecting the first molar, not the molar next to the wisdom tooth but the one after. There is only pain on the left side, and that is also the side that was experiencing pain before extraction under the assumption that the wisdom tooth was damaging the neighboring teeth. The tooth that feels pain has been heavily worked on in the past and has 2 large metallic fillings. It has had history of cold sensitivity in the past but never to this extent.

The past two days the pain was on an off, mostly occurring when I ate or drank anything, but today it has been in constant pain, and is unbearable. I am scheduled for a post op check up in 3 days, but it would make me feel better if I could go to my dentist with some knowledge as to why I'm feeling pain.

here are the symptoms.
1. Throbbing and pain when blood rushes to head
2. constant dull aching pain
3. high sensitivity to both hot and cold
4. pain when chewing even when not chewing on the molars.
5. pain when pressure is applied

I have some ideas as to why it's hurting. I think there might be a fracture on the tooth which is causing the pain. I can see a hairline crack extending horizontally on the tooth, which seems abnormal for a tooth crack. I am not sure if it has always been there or just recently appeared after the surgery. Another theory is that there was nerve damage from the application of needles to numb the surrounding area. I needed quite a few.

I would just really like to know if these seem like likely causes for my pain or if there are any other reasons that I don't know of and what kind of treatments, if any, there are.

I really hope I don't need to go through another tooth extraction and that this is just a side effect from the wisdom tooth removal that will subside with time.

-Tab

Originally Posted by Tabutts

Hello again,

I just came back from the dentist and my doctor said the sockets from the wisdom teeth removal are healing well and look to be in good condition. He gave me a syringe to flush out any debris from the hole and they should close up within the month.

I notified him about the pain I was experiencing in my first molar on the left side and I got an X-ray. Turns out it was infected since the mercury filling hadn't never been replaced and was installed a long time ago (he said he doesn't even know how long ago haha). That's what was causing all the pain and sensitivity.

I was prescribed antibiotics and 600mg Motrin for the pain. I'm going to have a root canal preformed on the 21st, I hope this will solve my pain issues for good!

Thank you for the replies and insight, I'm really glad that I don't have a dry socket or any other serious problems concerning my wisdom tooth extraction. Hopefully the root canal procedure will go smoothly and painlessly!

Sincerely,
Tab

Originally Posted by Bryanna

Hi Tab,

Glad to hear the oral wounds are healing. It is very important to be very gentle when using the irrigation syringe. Only use warm salt water or plain warm water in the syringe. If you use anything else to irrigate with you will slow down the healing.

Regarding the issue with the tooth that is hurting you.... Just to help clarify what a tooth infection really is so you can understand what is going on more clearly. Tooth infections do not show up on a dental xray until the bacteria has spread from the tooth into the periodontal ligament or jaw bone. That means that the infection is not new it is something that was present inside of the tooth for quite some time. Also, most tooth infections typically have no symptoms until the infection has spread. This infection might have been visible on the xrays that were taken prior to your recent extractions. Did your dentist mention anything about that tooth to you prior to today?

Also, a tooth does not become infected because a mercury filling was not replaced. They become infected because either a piece of the filling broke off or the filling was deteriorating and bacteria was getting in and decaying the tooth underneath the filling. The decay does not happen suddenly and either problem is visible both clinically and on dental xrays quite some time before the decay occurs.

There is a lot of information on this forum about root canals. If you are curious about learning more about them, just skim through some of the threads about root canals. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask them here.

Bryanna