3 months of dental drama

[magicman81]

Hello everyone. I am new here but wanted to post a question. I had a dental infection 4 months ago. I didn't know it. I had a filling on tooth #4 3 months ago. The sensitivity never went away after and the dentist told me not to worry about it. Then 10 weeks ago I found a painful lump (gum boil/abscess) in my gum that shot pain to the root tip. I was given 16 days of 500 mg keflex 4x per day.



Fast forward. An attempted root canal 14 weeks ago turned into a broken tool in my root. Which turned into an extraction. I had very firm thick roots. The dentist said it was the toughest extraction he has ever done out of 6000. Almost the whole tooth came out with a crunch though they did have to dig out one root tip. The dentist said to get ready for pain. And pain it was. For two weeks excruciating pain. Checked multiple times, no infection was visible. It seemed to be healing normally.



4 weeks post extraction and it was still hurting. Very painful to push in the gums toward the front of my mouth in my gun line. Went back to the dentist. He said we was almost positive my buccal bone was fractured when the tooth came out because of how it came out. He said it could hurt for 6 to 8 weeks. No imaging was performed.



6 weeks post op and it is still very painful to push on though fine otherwise. The actual extraction site didn't hurt. When I pushed on the front of the gum line where the tooth extracted it is very sensitive and painful.



After this (5 weeks ago) I went to another dentist for a second opinion... He did a 360 degree x ray and found a piece of infected root tip. It was extracted almost 4 weeks ago. It was very swollen and painful when he extracted, and some pus came out. He cleaned it out. Since then it has stopped throbbing. However now even with slight pressure on the inferior gum of the tooth adjacent to it there is intense pain. It only hurts when I push on the inferior gum. The dentist did say a lot of gum tissue was moved around. But should it still be hurting that badly to slight pressure on the gums? Any advice is helpful. Thanks.

 

[Busybee]

Magicman that sounds awful. You lost a tooth due to negligence and then it wasn't even extracted without failing to do that properly.

I know it's too late for that tooth, but for future reference never let a general dentist perform a root treatment. Always go to a specialist endodontist. They do this every day and they have all the tools and equipment but most of all the experience of dealing with so many different situations. On top of this it's best to go to a specialist oral surgeon for extractions of large molars and in particular wisdom teeth. I know dentists do this and some are very good but some aren't that experienced these days because they rarely need to take teeth out compared to the bad old days.

I'm sure what you have had done will take some time to settle down but you should go to a specialist oral surgeon for an opinion on why you are still in so much pain and just to check that a nerve wasn't damaged.

I hope you feel better soon.

 

[magicman81]

Magicman that sounds awful. You lost a tooth due to negligence and then it wasn't even extracted without failing to do that properly.

I know it's too late for that tooth, but for future reference never let a general dentist perform a root treatment. Always go to a specialist endodontist. They do this every day and they have all the tools and equipment but most of all the experience of dealing with so many different situations. On top of this it's best to go to a specialist oral surgeon for extractions of large molars and in particular wisdom teeth. I know dentists do this and some are very good but some aren't that experienced these days because they rarely need to take teeth out compared to the bad old days.

I'm sure what you have had done will take some time to settle down but you should go to a specialist oral surgeon for an opinion on why you are still in so much pain and just to check that a nerve wasn't damaged.

I hope you feel better soon.

Thanks so much! Funny enough the root canal that failed was performed by an endontist. He said that the root was very curvy and the tool just broke.

I plan on going to an oral surgeon for any further extractions. My dentist told me to give my current situation another week or two. That said if it continues or gets worse I will go in immediately. I am just frustrated and am ready to be out of pain. Thanks so much for the reply.

 

[Busybee]

Well best of luck. I do hope you are out of pain soon. I have only had teeth extracted as a child but I do remember that you can get "ghost pain" for years or weird sensations in the gum. Even now flossing it feels a little tickly compared to the other gums. Yours is so recent. Maybe give it time and see if it settles.