Teeth are being a pain... still

My upper molar (the one which had the second part of the root canal done the other day) is still aching a bit, but less so than yesterday.

It seems that the gum just above the tooth hurts a bit when touched or pressed.

The actual treatment was not painful at all (surprisingly) - it's just afterwards that is when you get the pain.

After the anaesthetic wears off, the drilling right inside the tooth, right to the bottom of the root is what causes the pain later - the tooth is rather traumatised by all the sharp drills and having part of its enamel and dentine removed is a traumatic experience for living tissue and teeth are living tissue!

I know that a tooth that has its root removed is technically no longer alive, but it still gets some sort of blood supply and is still in contact with other teeth, nerves, tissue around it - the other nerves around the root of the tooth may also get traumatised by the vibration of the drilling, which can be causing my pain now. That's the only explanation I have for it to be still painful!

Tooth and gum around it hurts today

I know it was expected, but that still doesn't ameliorate the pain!

The tooth that had the root canal work done on it yesterday is hurting me today, as is the area in the gum above it and to the side of it.

The pain in the gum area is the worst. It's like this hot, searing pain and if anything touches it (like a bit of food), it hurts even more. In general and most of the time, there is a dull ache type of pain, which gets worse when anything puts pressure on that part of the gum - even me smiling or moving my mouth a certain way will do it. Yikes!

Damn, it's annoying.

Nothing much I can do about it, other than take some painkillers and I don't have any. I may get some tomorrow if the pain is still bad.

It was hurting a little last night and earlier today, but has seemed to get worse this evening after I ate dinner. Maybe it was the act of eating food, moving my facial/jaw muscles around (even though I was careful not to eat on the side of my mouth where the tooth is located), that has irritated the tooth and gum around it.

The same thing happened after the first part of the root canal treatment, so maybe that's all it is - the tooth is a little traumatised from all the drilling work done into its very roots and is inflamed now and it will take a few days for it to get feel normal again.

If it still hurts this much tomorrow, I may also call the dentist to ask them what I can do about it - they're probably the best people to ask, as they would know why it would be reacting this way and whether or not it was normal.

Painful tooth progressively getting better

The abscessed tooth is progressively getting better each day. Thank goodness!  I can now actually touch it with my toothbrush, which, up until today, I couldn't - I had to brush the teeth next to it and prevent touching it, even with just the soft pressure of the toothbrush.

Now that I can brush that tooth, it means I can get into the bit where the filling has chipped off and get some toothpaste in there. It seems like the abscess is draining out of it there, because when I have brushed the chipped bit, it seems very smelly and it wasn't before the abscess (and pain) started. I know this because I tried brushing it without any toothpaste, with just a bit of water on the toothbrush, to just stimulate the area without the toothpaste, at first, then I used some toothpaste.

The swelling in my cheek has gone down too as has the pain in the upper gum area above the tooth (inside my mouth), so that is all a big relief.

I also went to see that dentist today and he was nice, explained it all to me about how the sedation would work.  After seeing him, my gut feeling though, is telling me not to go for the sedation. I don't know why, but this time I am going to go with my gut and try to get the tooth filled awake. I have to decide which dentist to try. But in the meantime, I need to continue to take the antibiotics, probably the two doses - I am halfway through one packet now, so I have to go for the other packet too, as the abscess is rather large and is taking some time to disperse.

Dentists confirms abscess at root of the tooth

No wonder I have been getting such severe pain in my tooth - there is an abscess under the root, near the nerve.

I started taking some antibiotics on Sunday afternoon, because I thought that maybe if the tooth was this painful, there may be an abscess underneath in the root area, that was causing the huge pain.

By the time it was Monday morning, I was in such severe pain that it hurt to even swallow my own saliva! The pressure from my tongue in my mouth was irritating the exposed nerve in that tooth and it hurt really badly.  Not only did that hurt, but the whole of my right side of my jaw, upper and lower hurts so much too. It's just awful.

I don't have a dentist here, so I had to ring around to find someone, but two of the dentists I tried were not available until Wednesday, which was in two days time. That was not soon enough for me, as the pain was excruciating!  I finally found a dentist who could take me in, in a few hours, as they had a spot available in their emergency appointment schedule - thank goodness!

Breakfast consisted of half a glass of a smoothie I made - to give me some energy. I had to drink it through a straw because any of the liquid that touched the tooth hurt so much.

When I saw the dentist, I explained to her the problem and the pain, as well as my bad experiences with dentists in the past, together with my very low threshold of pain and the fact that I get sinus issues, which makes working on my top teeth very difficult, because the vibrations of the drill vibrate the sinus passages and that causes pain, even with anaesthetic injected.


The dentist recommended that I undertake the treatment to the tooth under light sedation. Because the tooth and surrounding area is so sore, she advised me that she may not be able to get the area numbed enough to be able to treat the tooth. That was disappointing, but at least she was honest and had integrity enough to let me know what my best option was. She gave me two phone number of dentists, one who she really recommended, but didn't know if he did sedation and the other she didn't really know, but knew he did sedation.

I called the first practice, who confirmed they did not do sedation there and gave me the phone number of another dentist (not on the list) who did sedation and who was really good. God, I hope he is, as I am petrified of going to the dentist!

Today when I woke up, the right side of my face was visibly swollen. Not a lot, but enough to be visible that there was an issue underneath. The gum near the tooth was also sore, as was my jaw at the joint. I rang the dental surgery who explained that it was not anything to worry about too much unless the swelling got worse and that I would be okay as I was seeing the other dentist tomorrow.

My appointment with the dentist who does the sedation work is tomorrow morning - it is for a consultation to see what he can do for this tooth. The first dentist already sent over my file and x-ray to their practice, so they know what they're dealing with.