Hello,

My name is Celeste. I had a root canal treatment done three weeks ago and since then I have some ear pain, plugged ear, burning feeling around it etc..

First, I made a root canal because I felt pain in my tooth so the dentist suggest to do that treatment. When he first start and remove infection and nerve I felt fine and painfree but after that I floss my tooth and some blood came and I felt pain again in the tooth a bit but mostly around the ear.

I told my dentist about this and ask him to clean again the root or check if there is other infection before to go futher..I finished the root canal but the ear pain remain.

I experienced headaches only on the right side ( where the root canal is )after that, burning sensation in the ear and pressure, in my back and shoulder . I took 3 boxes of antibiotics and pain killers now I'm feeling better no more headache or fever but I still have this ear pain somteimes and also some others strange feelings my arm is feeling weak and my hand too, some pin and needles sensation in the body..

The dentist said that it should go away but I have the impression that the infection is still there and it's travelling...I did some x ray ( 3 d as well) with an other dentist . He could see a black spot on the gum but he said it could be the previous infection and could take month or a year to fade and doesn't mean there is an infection now.

Also he refered me to an endodontist who said there is nothing wrong with the canal made but he want me to do a CT scan before to take any action.

Then he could suggest to retreat the tooth but I'm wondering if removing the tooth and cleaning around it could be a better solution.

Anybody here at the same issue ? if yes how did you resolve it ?
Bryanna any advices ? I saw that you gave many advices about this kind of situation.

Thanks

Hi celeste,

Tooth pain does not always occur when a tooth is infected. Pain, swelling or discomfort in adjacent areas such as the ear can be related to a tooth infection. Traveling nerve type pain as you have described can also be attributed to an infected tooth as the inflammation from the infection causes inflammation and irritation to the alveolar nerves that the tooth is attached to. Those alveolar nerves are intricately connected to other branches of nerves that move throughout the body.

Root canaled teeth are chronically infected. These infections do not always show up on radio-graphs until they are very severe. There are several reasons why rc teeth stay infected but the easiest reason to understand has to do with the microscopic canals. There are literally many hundreds of these canals in every tooth. They all contain nerve tissue but they are not accessible like the larger canals. So the nerves in these tiny canals is never removed and it quickly becomes necrotic infected nerve tissue. It is just a matter of time as to when the tooth becomes overwhelmed with infection. In the mean time, the bacteria seeps from the tooth and goes into the periodontal ligament, the jaw bone and beyond.

It does not matter how many times a tooth is root canaled, the status of the infection inside of the tooth will not change. The microscopic canals will remain infected. I will attach a diagram of a tooth that shows the microscopic canals called dentin tubules. This will give you an idea of how many there are in the tooth and why the tooth stays infected.

Sometimes a dentist will suggest to do a surgical root canal called an apicoectomy. The main difference between a surgical root canal and a conventional root canal is the site of entry into the tooth. Otherwise, both procedures serve the same purpose and cannot favorably alter the status of the infection in the tooth.

To keep the rc tooth means is to keep the infection. The only means of eradicating the infection is to remove the source of the infection, which is the tooth.

I will attach the diagram of the microscopic canals, dentin tubules.

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Hello,

Thanks Bryanna for the information. I'm sure it comes from the tooth because the headache and ear ache is only from the side where the root canal is.

I'm not sure that I want to do a root canal retreatment anyway because it will cost me a lot as well.

The solution is to find a good surgeon, i'm living in the uk but I have no idea where to find a good one because as you said in others post. Maybe I should say to the endodondist that I prefer to remove the tooth so he could do my a referal.


Do you know any oral surgeon in london ? You said that he need to clean the gum, clean the periontal ligament and what else ?

Thank you again.

Celeste,

I do not know of anyone to refer you to in London.

I agree that it's best to have an oral surgeon be the one to extract the tooth. It may also be better if you went to someone who has a private practice as from what others have shared here, they received better care from those who are in private practice.

When a tooth is extracted, the surgeon is suppose to remove the tooth, then debride (scrape) the socket clean which would remove the periodontal ligament and any visibly diseased tissue and bone. However, it is best for the patient to express to the surgeon that these protocols are to be done rather than just assume they will. All too often these important steps are not automatically done and that's when post operative problems are more likely to result. Always better to be safe, than sorry later.

If you want to, you could make a new post asking if anyone has a recommendation of an oral surgeon in London.

Bryanna

Hello Bryanna,

Thank you for your answer.

I went to do a CT scan and the endodontist gave me his feedback. He said again there is nothing wrong with the root canal and he can't see infection neither...but now I feel pain in my throat too...( only one side)

Because I don't have any pain in my tooth he doesn't think removing the tooth is a good option or do a retreament neither....
He said my symptoms are more related to the nerves and the fact that I kept my mouth wild open during the root canal treatment and eventually it will go away with time.

I have an appointment to an oral surgeon at the hospital but it's november so I asked for a referal for a private one and he said that this is pointless because they will send me to the hospital anyway.

I'm a bit lost and I don' know what do to. I read a lot of post about the same problem but most of the people have pain in the tooth so i'm not sure i'm in the same position.

Did you heard about someone having the same symptoms as me ear throat pain but no pain in the tooth ? Did they find relief after removing the tooth ?

Thanks

Celeste,

The endodontist performs root canals for a living. He is not going to tell you that the tooth is infected unless you have an abscess because for him to admit that root canaled teeth are always infected, would not be good for his livelihood. So although his diagnosis has confused you, the fact remains that the many hundreds of tiny canals in your tooth contain infected nerve tissue. I will attach a diagram for you to see just how many of those canals there are in your tooth. They are called dentin tubules.

It is VERY common for people to NOT have "tooth" pain with a tooth infection. Especially root canaled teeth because the blood supply has been cut off and the live pulp chamber has been removed. The tooth may feel uncomfortable, loose, painful or nothing.

You could also be having pain from the musculature area near the TMJ because you had your mouth open wide for a length of time. But that would be an additional problem to the already infected rc tooth.

Yes, I know of countless patients who have all sorts of pain due to their root canaled tooth because the infection and inflammation from the tooth is irritating to the adjoining nerves in the bone, face, head, etc. The patients that get the best relief are those that remove the tooth sooner than later because once the nerve irritation progresses to other branches of nerves, a long term neuralgia can develop even after the tooth is removed.

An excellent book about root canaled teeth written for the lay person and by a dentist and a cardiologist is called The Toxic Tooth by Dr Kulacz and Dr Levy. It will provide you all the answers you are seeking.

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