I have never posted on this forum before but have read some posts here and found that Bryanna is a wealth of knowledge. I am struggling after my recent root canal molar extraction and was hoping to ask some questions for her or other knowledgeable members of this group.

I had a root canal on molar 19 for 2 decades. In the last year I started to get a lot of unexplained dental pain around that tooth. No evidence of anything awry on xray, 3d scan, saw many dentists for opinions. Since I tend to see holistic dentists they pretty much all said that while it looked radiographically fine, being a root canal tooth they are basically ticking time bombs anyway. I did much research and got some energy testing and decided to have it extracted. I had low grade pain in that area for 8 months and it seemed like the right thing to do.

I traveled many hours and stayed overnight to see a holistic dentist who did extractions, one of the few in my state. I did not want to just go to any oral surgeon, as I knew it was important to remove the periodontal ligament and clean the socket to prevent cavitations or trapped infection in the bone.

The extraction was a little over 3 days ago. I needed an extra shot of numbing and I still did not get totally numb, it was quite uncomfortable but I would bear the extraction. He cut the molar in half to extract each root at a time. He removed the periodontal ligament and used a curette type tool as well as a drill that had water coming out of the side (I think it's a low speed drill?) to remove bone. He talked as he worked which I appreciated and said that there was no sign of infection but there were shards of gutta percha all through the socket. He worked for what seemed like ages. Every time he thought he got it all he would find another one. Finally he said he could not go any deeper or he would cause damage. He placed clots in the socket which he had created using an LPRF machine, and injected homeopathic remedies which I did not fully understand called Sanum. He sewed the top clot to the socket which is his standard procedure to make a healing patch, he called it. I managed to ask if he got all the shards of gutta percha and he said yes. But then I was brought into another room to do payment and never saw him again. I asked his assistant how much bone he took out and she said "more than usual."

I was only given one gauze to bite on so I bit on it for about 15-20 minutes but then they wanted me to take post surgical homeopathics. So I had to spit out the gauze. I asked if I needed another and they said no. That was interesting because when I had gotten my wisdoms out I had a huge pack of gauze which I bit on for hours. The office closed and I left to the hotel, which I stayed overnight then went home in the morning.

I have many questions following that extraction and I have contacted the dentist a few times but am very very conscious that I do not want to be seen as a bothersome or problematic patient. I ask a lot of questions and some providers do not like that, I found over the years. So I have some more that I am hoping to ask on here.

1.) I usually do not take any pain medicine. For my wisdoms I only took one Motrin and that was the first night of surgery. However this time I simply cannot function without Motrin. I am taking 400mg every 6 hours around the clock, and have done since the night of surgery. I tried twice to go off and I cannot, the pain is too bad.

Should it still be this painful over 3 days since the extraction?

2.) I feel very flu like. Very lethargic, hot, muscle aches, slight headache. I have felt like this since the surgery but the feeling of being hot is more intense today. When I take my temp the few times I have gone off the Motrin I do have a low grade fever (between 99.0-99.7). When the Motrin kicks in it reduces the fever so it is hard to tell, on the Motrin I am at like 98.6-99.0.

Is this normal 3+ days after surgery to feel flu like or have a low grade fever? Could it be a sign of infection? Being a holistic dentist he does not prescribe antibiotics routinely.

3.) I simply feel that I cannot stand the feeling of my teeth/bite. As soon as the anesthetic wore off I felt panic. The tooth in back of the extraction site feels fine but the tooth in front (#20) feels awful in my mouth. It feels like my tongue is laying on top of the tooth and when I talk or swallow it feels like one of the cusps is slicing the side of it. I can't stop touching this tooth with my tongue and as a result have barely spoken since the surgery, it feels so awful. That tooth specifically was previously a little rotated towards my tongue but it feels now like it's basically impinging on where my tongue should sit. It feels so foreign like a big chewed lump of bubble gum stuck under my tongue.

Could this tooth have moved or rotated further during surgery to cause this feeling? Or is it simply my brain having a total freakout because my mouth is missing a tooth? Will I ever get used to this? Should I ask to have that tooth filed down? It is actually the worst part of the whole thing for me, even more than the pain and flu feeling.

I am sorry this is so long. I know I might sound very anxious but I truly am. I can honestly say that I never expected feeling like this after, and it has all thrown me for a loop. I thought I would get a root canal tooth out, be uncomfortable but feel really great because it was gone. I was very wrong. So I am pretty anxious.

Thank you so much in advance.