Complications after Cavity Filling

[dentalquestions15]

On February 1st, I had a filling done on a cavity between teeth #13 and #14. I had no pain with this cavity before it was filled, but ever since then it has been excruciating to floss in that spot and chew on my left side. It actually doesn’t hurt otherwise, just while chewing and pulling out floss.

February 18th, my dentist said it looked fine and she didn’t see any visible issues. She told me to come back 2 weeks later if it still hurt.

March 4th, I still had a sharp pain when removing floss between #13 and #14, so my dentist removed and redid the filling.

It’s now March 8th and I still can’t chew anything crunchy on my left side, and flossing feels like someone is ripping my teeth out. The pain is sharp and is what I imagine an exposed nerve would feel like. It hurts and feels the same as the original filling.

My cavity wasn’t painful before the filling and all of my other fillings by the same dentist healed just fine, so I don’t know what’s wrong with this one. Does anyone have any advice?

Another thing I’ve noticed recently is that swallowing is more difficult than usual. Not in a painful way, but I almost hesitate to swallow now as if the food won’t go down unless I focus. I don’t know if it’s related to the filling issue or not. Thank you so much for any answers!

 

[honestdoc]

Unfortunately, any drilling on teeth will make the tooth weaker and more sensitive. As long as the filling is well-sealed and has no decay, allow the teeth to heal and avoid anything too cold (not overwhelm it with cold fluids, ice cream, etc.). If you can't stand the pain, you may need to consider root canal or implant. The swallowing difficulty may be independent (not related) to the fillings. Hopefully the difficulty will be temporary.