Pressure sensitivity, and my dentist is stumped.

[Mecidimes]

Hey everyone, I'm not usually one to ask for advice online, but honestly my dentist and endodontist are both stumped.

I had my first cavity last December, and it was filled with silver by my home dentist. A few weeks later, I had pressure sensitivity on that tooth to the point that I couldn't chew on it. The pressure sensitivity has always been on the lift-off, never on the bite-down. No temp sensitivity or lingering pain. I saw a big dental practice in another city and the dentist told me the tooth had three cracks in it radiating away from the filling toward the mesial, buccal, and lingual sides of the tooth. She recommended a crown, to which I grudgingly agreed (I'm 24 with no history of dental problems other than misalignment corrected with braces).

They installed the temporary and the pressure sensitivity was much worse. Again, no temperature sensitivity or lasting pain. I kept that in for a month and they went ahead and put on the permanent porcelain blend crown. However, they put a microfracture in it as it was being installed so they said I needed to have it replaced eventually (at no charge). However, at this point they were saying that with my continued pressure sensitivity, I may need a root canal or even an implant.

With the permanent crown on, the pressure sensitivity decreased quite a bit but is still there. They keep filing it down to take it more out of bite, but yet the pain persists. So they checked the integrity of my pulp with a really cold probe, and that was normal. They checked it using an electric conduction probe, and that was diminished. So they sent me to an endodontist.

The endodontist looked at my X-rays and told me he couldn't see any fracture at all; maybe just a little widening of one of the ligaments. He also said that the electric conduction probe doesn't make any sense because the crown doesn't conduct electricity anyway. He didn't feel a root canal was necessary and recommended conservative therapy.

So now I'm in a bit of a cycle. I stay off the tooth completely for a week, and it calms down to the point that I can eat almost half a meal with no tenderness. However, then the tenderness comes back and I have to start all over again.

Tooth doctors! Have you seen anything like this before? How do I get my tooth to stop hurting?

 

[medf]

Hello, Mecidimes. I see you haven't gotten any responses yet. This board seems to be pretty inactive, unfortunately. Have you gotten any advice elsewhere? I posted a message shortly after yours about a similar problem my wife is having and haven't gotten any responses either. My post focused on her bite problem but she has pressure sensitivity in the tooth as well. Her first dentist suggested she may need a root canal but the endodontist he sent her to says he doesn't think she needs one and her pain is "within normal range" whatever that means. Unlike you, however, her tooth is also sensitive to cold. It was a rather deep filling but not too close to the nerve from what we're told. At this point we're stuck and she's very upset about it. She hasn't been able to chew on that side for over four months since she had the filling done. The pain isn't excruciating and doesn't linger, but it's uncomfortable enough for her to not want to chew on it. She just wants her old cavity-having tooth back at this point as she never had pain in it until it got filled. I really hope we can get some answers!

 

[Mecidimes]

I did get one response from another forum (the name of which escapes me; I just googled "dentistry forums" or some such thing and picked the first three or four). They recommended watchful waiting.

I've had pressure sensitivity since late January of this year, but it's only been in the last couple of weeks in which it's actually gotten better! Now the pressure sensitivity is almost gone and I can chew on it again. I will need another crown put on that tooth eventually since the current one is cracked, but I think I'm done monkeying around with my mouth for now.

The week that started this recovery was the week after I saw my endodontist, who prescribed me 800mg ibuprofen (four normal tablets) every 6 hours for a week, as well as strict avoidance of any chewing on that side. He made a very good analogy about my tooth basically being a sprained ankle, and to treat it as such. At the end of that week, I did feel better but it still hurt. I'm about three weeks out now and the pain has gotten progressively better. Maybe try that? I hope that helps!

 

[medf]

Thanks for the info. So basically, you had pressure sensitivity for 6 months and only after the ibuprofen did it manage to heal? That's interesting because our endo said it could take up to 6 months for the discomfort to go away. We were skeptical because it's coming up on 5 months now since she had the filling. But maybe ibuprofen will help it along, so we'll try that. The other concern is her bite still feels off in that spot. They say there's no more room for adjustment but she can definitely still feel it hitting in one spot. We're going to another dentist who is supposedly good with functional occlusion, so hopefully he'll be able to do something.

What a bummer this happened to you with your first cavity! Well, it sounds like things are improving for you so hopefully things will get back to normal.