Hi!

I am a 41 year old female who does not smoke and have had no previous dental problems. I saw the same dentist for 10 years and never had a problem. When he retired his practice was bought out and I continued to go because I liked and trusted the staff that stayed on. My first visit with the new dentist I all of a sudden had 4 cavities! He filled them but one caused me a lot of pain after the numbing wore off. I called and complained to the office manager but never heard back. I did not go to see another dentist for 2 years and dealt with the pain..stupid I know.

I finally broke down and saw a new dentist who was very attentive and informed me I would need a root canal. I had some issues after that and had to see the dentist who informed me that it may be cracked. He ground the surface down so that the tooth would not touch the lower tooth and the pain went away. The dentist then said we should go forward with a crown so I did. I had pain after the crown while eating and chose to ignore it. Two month later I broke down and went back in. A different dentist (mine was out of town) tapped on the tooth and I had EXTREME pain shoot through my tooth and face. The new dentist told me it was cracked and would need to be extracted.

I went back a week later and it was extracted. I was warned that the root was very close to my sinus. It took a very long hour to get the tooth out and it broke in pieces. The dentist informed me that I did in fact have a whole in my sinus now. They took another x-ray post extraction and she though she saw more fragments. She went back in and started scraping inside the hole. She said nope it is just your jaw bone. I was placed on antibiotics. I came back a week later and was in a lot of pain. The dentist found bone fragments and after numbing me she pulled them out. A week later I was back because I was still in a lot of pain. She sent me to an oral surgeon.

The oral surgeon looked at my x-ray and mouth and told me it looks like I was getting over dry socket but that he did not see any infection anymore. I was told I would experience the pressure and pain in the sinus area for about a month.

Well 4 days ago I stated experiencing new shooting pains at the tooth extraction site. I looked in my mouth and saw a white lump pushing against my gum on the side of the extraction site. I had feel and sharp lump with my tongue. I went in today and after an x-ray and 5 minutes with the dentist I was sent on my way. I was told it was new jaw bone forming and that I was healing beautifully. When asked why I still have so much pain that 3 ibprofen can't touch, I was given a shrug and told to come back in two weeks for my normal scheduled cleaning.

PLEASE is this normal? Am I over reacting? Never had issues with my mouth before and this pain is just dragging on and on! Thank you for any input. I am thinking of getting a second opinion.

Oh and I guess I should state that it was a molar on the right top side...second to last molar. I had my wisdom teeth pulled when I was 21 because two became impacted. I healed from that with no problems.

Ibuprophen is a very weak painkiller, you shouldve been prescribed stronger ones, such as vicodin, or something similar. When i was having pain in a tooth that needed a root canal i was prescribed the much stronger one. Definitely get a 2nd opinion, a trend im noticing in dentistry practices, is theres a different dentist every time, it happens alot in dentists in my area. which builds a poor relationship, thus little understanding of your situation. cavaties can be caused by decalcification, and free high sugar and acidic diets, and of course wear and tear. Dry mouth is also major contributer to cavaties as well.

DRY socket is a result when the clot of the extraction site gets, removed by "sucking motion, or anything hot, cold fluids. you might have to eat a liquid diet until the pain goes away, such as porridge or some very soft foods. you need to be seen right away though.

Thank you so much for your reply Neuroproblem. I was actually given Norco when I had the root canal and when they extracted the tooth months later.

I have also noticed that more and more offices seem to have multiple dentists. I saw just the one I really liked for 10 years and he was the only one in his practice. I have made an appointment with another dentist for tomorrow. The site which has bone pushing against the gum bled last night and it looks like it is pushing even more against the gum.

I have never heard of new bone forming so fast nor coming through the gum like that...so hopefully the new dentist can give me a better explanation and put my mind at ease. A co-worker had her tooth pulled 2 weeks after mine and she is already pain free I am happy for her but I really just want to be pain free in my mouth again!

Hi cpotsky,

It is not uncommon for a dentist to tell a new patient that they have cavities, especially when that person's dentist has retired. Which usually indicates that the dentist was an older person and perhaps not as diagnostic as maybe they once had been. This is a common occurrence and people of course will question the new dentist because they trusted their original one.

In your case, based on your description of what occurred with this tooth there was evidently a deep and/or moderate cavity and/or a fracture in this tooth that had not been diagnosed by your original dentist. The new guy attempted to remove the cavity and restore the tooth and may or may not have realized it was fractured. However, the newest dentist who did the root canal tooth may have known it was fractured when he did the rc because he could have gotten abnormal movement with the tooth when instrumenting it. Taking the tooth out of occlusion is just a temporary measure and have no long term benefit when a tooth is fractured. At that point there was no reason to crown it because a root canaled tooth with a fracture is beyond repair.

The back and forth with the dentist who extracted the tooth indicates she probably does not perform too many extractions and she may have caused some splintering of the buccal ridge along the gum line. That can occur when either the tooth is badly infected and/or if too much force or an improper technique was used to remove the tooth. Sometimes the splintered bone will fill in and sometimes little pieces of it will protrude from the gum and either fall out on their own or need to be removed. They can cause the area to feel quite sore and achey. In the future if needed, it's usually best to see an oral surgeon for tooth extractions especially root canaled teeth.

It is not wise to have your teeth professionally cleaned until the extraction site closes because debris can end up in the socket. In the meantime it is important to keep your mouth very clean, by brushing, flossing, and tongue scraping. What did the oral surgeon have to say about the sinus opening?

Bryanna

Thank you so much for your response! I have to say that I think it is wonderful that you are here and so willing to communicate with people when they are so distressed! I think you are amazing because I know this is taking a lot of your time but you are helping so many.

Anyway, the OS said my sinus appeared fine and that if I smelled something bad or tasted something bad then I would know I had an infection in my sinus. He really only spent 5 minutes with me also. It really makes me feel that I'm being overly dramatic. I feel like I should just deal with it but other people tell me that I should not being feeling this kind of pain for so long.

I am starting to feel that I should never have gone back to the dentist as this pain is worse than before I had the root canal. I can handle pain because I did for the two years before since the filling but this new pain is totally distracting and horrible.

Well, tomorrow I am seeing another dentist and maybe she can enlighten me a little more than my last dentist. I just feel that a professional should not rush a patient out the door if they have concerns.

Ok...so I got my second opinion and I am glad I did! It turns out the dentist who pulled my molar out actually fractured my jaw and left the ridge jagged around my hole. So the new dentist sent me to another OS and he ground down the rough part and told me to take it easy.

The new dentist was AMAZING! She said that for my whole visit that if my insurance didn't cover any part of it she would not charge me. She said I had been through enough trauma. She also gave me her cell phone number and told me to call her this weekend at anytime if I have questions or problems with my mouth. I am also scheduled to see her in a week and that is also a complimentary visit.

She also talked to me about getting an implant and told me that I should see a specialist for that and she had a referral ready for me. I really felt like I was in good hands and taken care of properly!

cpotsky,

A good thing you went for the additional opinion and was re treated to remove the splintered bone. Hopefully you will start to feel better and heal uneventfully from here on out.

Keep us posted on how you're doing.

Bryanna

Stumbled across this thread and hoping you are still out there to help me. It is coming up on 3 weeks after my bottom back molar extraction and I still feel lingering pain as if the tooth was still there. I too went to a new dentist. He said I had a cavity. When he went to fill it, he said I didn’t have a lot of tooth. To wait and see how that felt. Well ... now I had pain that I didn’t have before. Waited hoping to subside but didn’t. He then told me to have a root canal. I should have gone to a specialist but let him do it. Again ... continued discomfort. Went back ... said I had a hair line crack and gave me a few options. Get a crown or go to an oral surgeon. I didn’t want to spend the money on the crown if I didn’t know would fix it. Got a second opinion and a new X-ray from root canal specialist. Said to try a temporary crown to see if fixes issue. It didn’t. Went to oral surgeon. Told me to extract tooth. Was very anxious about everything so decided to got periodontist in NY who was highly recommended. He pulled my tooth. 3 weeks later still have uncomfortable sensation where the tooth once was. I am at a loss and have no idea where to go from here. Can anyone help me?