I recently had a root canal (about 8 days ago) and everything has been fine for the first five days. But, I've begun to feel a small amount of pain in an adjacent tooth, no sensitivity to heat, cold, or tapping. But whenever I apply pressure in the direction of the root canaled tooth, I feel a slight pain in the tooth.

I don't think it's infected as I don't have or never had a cavity on this tooth. I'm sort of freaking out and I'm curious if the roots could be a bit agitated from the root canal or something. Is it nothing or should I ask my dentist about it?

Hi Osiris,

There could be a few reasons why the adjacent tooth is hurting....

1)Root canaled teeth are chronically inflammed due to the nature of having bacteria in the microscopic dentin tubules. This inflammation causes referred pain to other areas of the mouth and teeth.

2)The root canaled tooth can easily become infected which would cause referred pain.

3)Due to the chronic inflammation, the tooth may need to be adjusted so you are not biting on it.

Teeth do not have to be decayed to become infected. All root canaled teeth have bacteria left in the tiny canals (dentin tubules) which causes infectious bacteria to grow inside the tooth. Sometimes there are early signs of something wrong and other times the signs appear months or years later. Fractured teeth or injured teeth can become infected also.

If your root canal has been completed, then you may want to revisit your dentist so he can examine and take an xray of the root canaled tooth.

Please let us know how you are doing!

Bryanna