Pain After Crown

I had a crown put on as an elective procedure (the tooth has lots of fillings and the dentist said eventually I would need a crown and I had money left over in my flexible sepding account). There was no pain or any other problem with the tooth.

After the crown there was a lot of pain and I went back and had the crown trimmed down because it was hitting the bottom tooth wrong. Still pain when I chewed on that that side so back again (3 more times over a period of about 3 weeks - I waited in between times thinking the pain would subside once the tooth hit properly.)

Now the tooth seems to be hitting properly (I don't feel it bang like I did before) but there is still pain if I chew on that tooth (it's been 4 days since the last adjustment to the crown.) It also hurts when I floss between this tooth and the one in front of it (it's the back tooth.)

Two questions - is it unusual (i.e. the sign of a job done poorly) to have to have the crown adjusted so many times? And, is it possible the pain will eventually go away on it's own or does it sound like I need to have a root canal or some other procedire to fix it?

[Jerome Tsang, DDS]

Has the symptoms gradually improved over the course of time?  If it is gradually improving after the final adjustment, I would leave well enough alone and just observe it for any changes at your next check up.

Sometimes adjustments are needed on a crown after cementation.  If you aren't satisfied with the crown and feel that its an issue, you can ask your dentist to make a new crown for you.  It would be better to discuss your concerns now rather than months later.

Its possible that a root canal would fix the problem.  It really depends on what the issue is with the crown to begin with.  I once cemented a crown and the patient was fine for about a week and then one day he came back with extreme pain.  I took a look inside, found a little piece of cement that we had missed and its been problem free ever since.  Sometimes it may be a slight oversight or it could possibly be that the trauma from the drilling may have irritated the pulp and resulted in inflammation that just needs time to resolve.  Unfortunately lots of things can happen so I can't really say for sure what the best solution is.