Never bite down hard on a toothpick. Help.

[janks]

So, last Tuesday I was eating a homemade burrito. My wife had stuck toothpicks in the burritos to hold them together. I thought I had taken all of them out, but I thought wrong. One of the toothpicks had slid down into the burrito. I took a huge bite and bit into it on my left side.

For the last week, I haven't been able to eat on the left side of my mouth. Every tooth on my left side feels sore and swollen. I went to my dentist and they did an x-ray and they said they didn't see any cracked teeth, but that the teeth could still be cracked. Could anyone help me out? My gums also feel sore and swollen. This has been going on for a week now.

 

[Donnie K]

I can tell you what you have probably done. You have probably sprained the PDL ligaments around your teeth. It is very painful and lingers for a very LONG time. I had a root canal done in October and on a follow up visit the Endodontist had me bite down on a bite stick to check my bite. I bit down hard on it and since that time I still have sensitivity around that tooth. This will not show up on an X ray but is very painful and takes a VERY long time to recover from. I've had my dentist do special X rays to check for cracks or anything unusual, when I had my temp crown put on a month ago. I recall that I had this happen with a previous root canalled tooth 6 years ago. The best they could tell me was avoid chewing on that side and give it time. It is three months now and still flares up quite a bit. I hope you have more patience than me because this has been my own personal dental hell. I've found that muscle relaxers seem to help more than Advil for me. Good luck.

 

[janks]

Thank you! I knew it couldn't be my teeth because it feels like the whole side of my mouth. i have some muscle relaxers left over from my gall bladder surgery a month ago, so they've definitely been helping.

 

[AlexG_308]

Thank you! I knew it couldn't be my teeth because it feels like the whole side of my mouth. i have some muscle relaxers left over from my gall bladder surgery a month ago, so they've definitely been helping.

How did your tooth turn out?