Help? Bad toothache, not sure where

I have had a horrible toothache for the last few days. I believed the pain
was coming from the second to last molar on the bottom right side, next to
my wisdom tooth and on the other side a tooth that was extracted. The
cavity there is very deep and my dentist said the nerve was close to the
cavity. So I made an appointment to see the root canal specialist
(endondist?) today, but he looked at it and then at the bottom wisdom
tooth and said he believed it is the latter and recommended I get that
extracted instead. He did not think the other tooth needed root canal
work. So then I went to the oral surgeon (a half block away) and he
basically agreed, but because it was now a few hours after I had taken my
antibiotic medicine (which I have to take as I have artificial hip
joints), he told me to come back tomorrow morning, which I plan to do. But
I am concerned, that what if they are both wrong and I still have this
pain afterwards? I know I should probably have the bottom wisdom tooth
removed in any case, as the top one was, but complicating this is that
next Wednesday I will have my first liver biopsy, a surgical procedure
which I heard can be painful, and I don't want to go in there with some
other severe pain going on.

Sorry for this convoluted story, but any advice would be greatly
appreciated. I did get very helpful advice the last time I visited this
group.

- Steve Denney

 

On Thu, 2 Dec 2004 21:09:23 -0800, Stephen Denney

It is doubtful that two different dental specialist that have given
a similar diagnosis would be wrong.
It is not in their best interest to mis-treat you.

Treating the correct problem, alleviating pain, and
restoring function is the dental professional's highest goal.

If you have gotten two opinions about the same thing
that are congruent, then in all likelyhood you have recieved
honest assesments.

You didn't say why you are having a liver biopsy...
HepC ?

Cannot advise you about liver bx except for anecdotes.
Divorce yourself from any pain. <easier said than done>

Best wishes,



--
W_B



Take out the G'RBAGE

 

Agree with W_B (who knows much more about Endodontics than I ever will)
but you might ask the oral surgeon to do a selective anesthesia of the
suspect teeth that you think may be the source of the problem. This
entails putting some anesthesia in the gum right beside the tooth in
question and basically waiting for 2 minutes or so to see how things
respond. If the pain goes away, that tooth is most likely the source of
the problem. If not, the other one is. This is not an exact science, but
it may help clear up your hunch on which tooth is the problem. This is
not a whole lot of fun, but sometimes necessary when we are not sure
where the pain is coming from.

Further, as you are needing prophy antibiotics for dental procedures,
why not take the bull by the horns? Get both done today. Start with the
root canal,and then skidaddle over to the Oral Surgeon's and get the
wisdom tooth out?

Again, this is just theoretically speaking, and probably easier said
than done. However the specialist will be well placed to answer these
questions if you put them to him/her. If there's a possibility that both
can be done, you're away...

Sincerely hope this helps
SP