Hi, Angels31! I am interested to hear what you decide. I was told today that I have an infection from a root canal that was done 18 years ago! I was never told of future complications or maybe I would have had it extracted then! This infection is now producing symptoms, including a sore throat on same side with a sometimes stuffy ear and soreness in my back The endodontist did not tell me I have the option of extraction, and I am reading that the procedure of going through the gum to get the infection out will probably not work. She told me an 80percent chance it won't. I am thinking of just having the extraction done by a good oral surgeon and getting a partial or an implant later bc it is a tooth in the back of my mouth...just feel like it is such a big decision and that everyone is out for the money!! I don't trust anyone to tell me the truth! Even some of the "biological" dentists who supposedly all think root canals are not wise will actually advertise in preserving the teeth through some sort of sterilization process of the root. I feel terrible too--thought it might be the antibiotics but it is possibly the infection! The endodontist said it has been there for a long time!

Keep posting! I am going to see my dentist on Friday but may get a second opinion.

Hi Keggna,
It is amazing how bad you feel with a tooth infection! I think Bryanna is right that there is still infection in there after a root canal. I find it very interesting how after having a sinus infection that started in March, I had problems with my teeth that had root canals. I think the infection sits there until something inflames it. I had a similar situation that happened in 2010 after a sinus infection also. I ended up getting two teeth pulled then too. I need to ask my dentist if they had root canals also. I had all 4 of my wisdom teeth then and now I have had 3 of them extracted. I think it is weird how I have teeth problems after a sinus infection. I wonder if that is normal? I will be getting an implant in tooth 14 but not 15. According to his office, my health insurance covers part of the implant. So check with your insurance, do your research on the oral surgeon. I didn't but he seems to be highly respected and his prices seem reasonable. My neighbor went to one of the people who advertises on TV and paid twice as much!

Oh and Keggna, I was going to have that surgery where they go through the gum also and the endodontist told me it wasn't 100% that it would get rid of the infection, but removing the tooth would. He ended up referring me to the oral surgeon. He has since called to see how I am doing.

Angels31,

You are not "dense" at all! Just like many other people, you were unaware and uninformed of the chronic infection in your root canaled teeth and how that infection can travel to your sinus and beyond. Your dentists are not intentionally trying to harm you. Their education teaches them about the trapped bacteria inside of root canaled teeth, however, it also teaches them to do whatever they can to "retain" teeth and to only extract teeth when either the infection has become very severe and/or the patient has become ill. The systemic connection between our teeth and our health is much less emphasized in their education compared to the restorative measures to retain teeth. I hope I have explained that clearly.

The antibiotics are decreasing the inflammation just enough to reduce some of the symptoms and that is why you feel a little better when you take them. However, they cannot cure this infection and there are systemic consequences to taking multiple prescriptions of them.

The panoramic xray is a 2 dimensional xray that shows the entire mouth in a single xray. However, the teeth, jaw bone, sinus, etc are multi dimensional making the panoramic view limited for certain diagnostic purposes. A 3 dimensional xray is more diagnostic for finding pathology but it has to expose the areas of concern to be helpful. Remember, the infection inside of the dentin tubules of tooth #15 will not be picked up radio-graphically. So if the oral surgeon says he thinks he sees an infection with #15 ..... this means that the bacteria has proliferated beyond the dentin tubules and is now large enough to be picked up on the xray.

The area of extracted tooth #14 may show "normal" on an xray even if the graft were infected. The infection has to be more pronounced than the graft material to be picked up radio-graphically.

Regarding the MRI.... I'm sorry it was incomplete. The script for the procedure had to specifically say what needed to be viewed.

Extracting tooth #15 would be removing at least one known source of the infection. However, it is imperative that the oral surgeon thoroughly debride the bone of all diseased tissue and bone and not place a graft if the bone is not healthy enough to receive it.

I know this is all very difficult to understand. It is up to you to open up the conversation with your oral surgeon about your health concerns pertaining to .... residual infection in the site of #14 possibly infecting the graft ... unhealthy #15 adding to the infection .... and the sinus infection. You may also consider buying the book <Toxic Teeth by Dr Kulacz and Dr Levy> to help you become better informed so you can communicate more effectively with your oral surgeon and dentist.

I am attaching a diagram of the anatomy of a tooth to show you the dentin tubules. This will give you a clearer picture of how nerve tissue gets trapped inside of these canals and why the tooth becomes so ill.

Bryanna

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Hi Bryanna,
I have an update. I picked up a copy of my MRI yesterday and noticed it said I have a cyst in my left maxillary sinus that was suspicious of odontogenic sinusitis. So I took the report immediately to my oral surgeon. He looked at my x-rays again for #15 and the cd of the MRI and said it does have an infection, and he could take it out right now. He was hoping the bone in #14 would heal more but said I shouldn't walk around with an infection so he would have to do a bone graft in #15. So I went ahead and let him take it out. When he did, it had a massive infection from an old root canal where the tip of the root was severed and infected and in my sinus. I don't think he expected an infection that bad. Why would that have not shown up in X-rays or 3D X-rays? Or even the MRI? He took a long time cleaning it out. When I left, I did not have the feeling of sickness that I had before. I still feel like I have a sinus infection but maybe that will take time to clear. Now my concern is the cyst on the maxillary sinus. Is there any way I can post what my report says on here?