severe dental pain

[ellalily]

On Monday I visited my dentist for internal tooth whitening on my front molar. This tooth was root canal filled about 20 years ago. The dentist put a bleaching solution in the tooth and a temporary filling on top. By Monday evening I was in severe pain, and went back to the dentist the next day. He removed the solution and filled the tooth. The next day I was in even more pain, despite taking the max dose of both Ibuprofen and paracetemol. He repeated the procedure again the next day, taking out the filling, claning the cavity and replacing the filling. He also prescribed a course of antibiotics. 30 hours later and I am in agony, painkillers not working, my whole lower jaw throbbing, unable to sleep or even put my teeth together. Help. I'm due to go back tomorrow when he says he will replace the originall root canal filling. Will this help?

[smokey1950]

A related discussion, Severe pain following "whitening" toothpaste was started.

[ellalily]

That makes me feel slightly better, I'm beginning to wish I'd never started this. So, will the replacement of the original root canal sort the problem. I'm assuming I'll need to do this and the antibiotics aren't going to fix it.

[Jerome Bogin, D.D.S.]

It does sound like you have a residual infection from the old root canal.You are probably asking yourself--the tooth was not bothering me before the whitening why did it start now. my answer to that is that the tooth probably had the infection before you did the bleaching and by just touching the tooth it activated the bacteria at the apex of the root and this is what is causing the pain.