Hey guys, I was wondering if anyone could shine some light on a problem that I have been having for years now. Any advice or insight would be immensely appreciated.
I’m a 27 year old that has been dealing with chronic intermittent episodes of lower left molar toothache since around 2012 (6 years or so).
The pain is a constant dull ache, always worse at night, fairly localisable to the lower left-sided back teeth. No sensitivity whatsoever. The weird thing about these episodes is that they are episodic: I will get 2-4 month spells of this pain (dull, aching, worse at night), which will eventually subside and I may then be free of pain for as much as two years. Over the past 6 years, I have been getting these 2-4 month episodes of pain at worst every 6 months, and at best once every 2 years.
My past dental history is that I have had x2 fillings of my first left lower molar (composite in 2010, amalgam in 2016) and a wisdom tooth extraction on the left lower side in 2015. I also have an overbite with some frontal crowding of the lower teeth.
In 2015 the pain was attributed to an impacted left lower wisdom tooth which was extracted. However since then I have still been having these recurrent episodes of pain unchanged from before. On 3 occasions since 2015 (post wisdom tooth extraction) I have been to my dentist regarding similar toothache: no signs of infection, annual x-rays show no damage to the teeth, filling of the first molar healthy, with no nerve involvement. The usual outcome is that I have a course of oral antibiotics which doesn’t resolve the problem, however the pain will usually subside independently of this at a later date.
I attended my dentist again last week who took another x-ray of my left lower teeth, and has told me (for the first time) that the filling is slightly deep, and there is features of inflammation of the underlying ligament underneath the first molar. Again I have been advised to ride this out with a course of oral antibiotics, however this time I was told that the next option would be root canal treatment as a filling replacement would only increase my infection risk.
What does anyone make of this? I have spent many hours doing (uninformed) research about this – whether this is chronic pain post-wisdom tooth extraction, tooth decay, nerve involvement from the fillings, sprained tooth syndrome. I am just a bit sceptical about the fact that I have experienced zero sensitivity with all this, and pain that is always associated with lying down flat. Literally every time I lie flat (either in bed or on sofa) I can feel the pain coming on within minutes. None of this appears to be common in any of the literature that I have read. The aching feels very much like toothache however I have been reassured by numerous x-rays that there is no evidence of tooth decay.
Any thoughts on what the underlying problem is/what I should do what be of huge help.
Dan
I’m a 27 year old that has been dealing with chronic intermittent episodes of lower left molar toothache since around 2012 (6 years or so).
The pain is a constant dull ache, always worse at night, fairly localisable to the lower left-sided back teeth. No sensitivity whatsoever. The weird thing about these episodes is that they are episodic: I will get 2-4 month spells of this pain (dull, aching, worse at night), which will eventually subside and I may then be free of pain for as much as two years. Over the past 6 years, I have been getting these 2-4 month episodes of pain at worst every 6 months, and at best once every 2 years.
My past dental history is that I have had x2 fillings of my first left lower molar (composite in 2010, amalgam in 2016) and a wisdom tooth extraction on the left lower side in 2015. I also have an overbite with some frontal crowding of the lower teeth.
In 2015 the pain was attributed to an impacted left lower wisdom tooth which was extracted. However since then I have still been having these recurrent episodes of pain unchanged from before. On 3 occasions since 2015 (post wisdom tooth extraction) I have been to my dentist regarding similar toothache: no signs of infection, annual x-rays show no damage to the teeth, filling of the first molar healthy, with no nerve involvement. The usual outcome is that I have a course of oral antibiotics which doesn’t resolve the problem, however the pain will usually subside independently of this at a later date.
I attended my dentist again last week who took another x-ray of my left lower teeth, and has told me (for the first time) that the filling is slightly deep, and there is features of inflammation of the underlying ligament underneath the first molar. Again I have been advised to ride this out with a course of oral antibiotics, however this time I was told that the next option would be root canal treatment as a filling replacement would only increase my infection risk.
What does anyone make of this? I have spent many hours doing (uninformed) research about this – whether this is chronic pain post-wisdom tooth extraction, tooth decay, nerve involvement from the fillings, sprained tooth syndrome. I am just a bit sceptical about the fact that I have experienced zero sensitivity with all this, and pain that is always associated with lying down flat. Literally every time I lie flat (either in bed or on sofa) I can feel the pain coming on within minutes. None of this appears to be common in any of the literature that I have read. The aching feels very much like toothache however I have been reassured by numerous x-rays that there is no evidence of tooth decay.
Any thoughts on what the underlying problem is/what I should do what be of huge help.
Dan
