Soreness three weeks after root canal

[backwardsgirl]

I had severe sensitivity and pain in a front tooth for a couple of months. I went to the dentist who detected an abscess above the tooth next to it and, thus performed a root canal procedure on it. I was given two courses of antibiotics. However, the pain in my front tooth never went away and so  the dentist performed a root canal procedure on that tooth. There was quite a bit of pain from that procedure, of course, but over the next week my sensitivity disappeared and the pain seemed to be subsiding. I had the tooth filled a week later and the pain continued to subside. However, after a week, I developed pretty severe pain whenever the tooth came into  contact with anything. So, three weeks now after the procedure, though the sensitivity is gone, I'm still in quite a bit of pain. Needless to say, after months of pain, I'm at my wit's end. Do I need to have the procedure redone or is something else causing this?

[backwardsgirl]

I just came back from the dentist and he prescribed another course of antibiotics "just in case that solves it." He said that if the antibiotics didn't work, then he would have to perform surgery, drilling down into the tooth from the top. Is it just me or does that seem a little drastic? He didn't say anything about the filling or about redoing the root canal procedure.

[Jerome Tsang, DDS]

Go back to your dentist and get it checked again.  The bite may be off on the root canal restoration (filling or crown they placed) and needs to be adjusted.