Chronic pain after filling

[cussie]

One week ago I had a filling on a molar (number 30). It was a fairly deep filling and on the x ray you could see that it was very close to the nerve. After the filling the dentist said I would be tender for a couple of days. It felt like there was something stuck between my teeth. Two days passed and the pain only increased. It reached the stage where I could not tell which jaw was sore let alone which tooth was hurting. After two days I went back to the dentist who prescribed me antibiotics and tolod me to pick up some over the counter pain killers and that I should see him the next day. I have been going back to him everyday for a week and the pain is not going away although it has changed. My tooth still feels unsettled and sensitive but the pain is concentrated in front of my ear ( this is pretty relentless) and in various places under  and on the side of my jaw. The dentist has just prescribed more of the same antibiotics and said he can open the tooth up again if I want but he cannot guarentee the pain will go away. Dentists and doctors seem to only speak in code. How am I supposed to know what I want him to do? Should I have the tooth opend again and what purpose would this be for? Will this resolve itself and is my dentist telling me the whole story. I am fast reaching the point where I am going to have the tooth removed to stop the pain.

[Gellia]

Hi,
This is similar to what happened to me.  I had a tooth ache and ran off to my dentist (my then dentist).  He removed an old filling and put a new one in.  The pain was awful.  It didn't seem to go away at all and was getting worse.  He adjusted my bite.  He adjusted it again and yet again, but the pain was throbbing and terrible.  Finally I opted for the dreaded root canal.  He did that.  The pain did not go away!  He told me he would repeat the root canal, IF I WANTED HIM TO (now, how would I know what was best ??).  I should have known then that I was in for more trouble, but well,..he was the dentist.  

The upshot of it all is that the second root canal also failed.  The pain was unrelenting and had been going on for nearly a year.  He finally told me I should go to an endodontist to see if he could help.  By that time, I had spent so much time and money on one tooth I could have had an implant twice over.  With two RCT attempts having failed, I was told to loose the tooth, which is what I finally had to do after a year of failing treatments.  
Once it was gone, so was the pain.  Seems my tooth root took a right angle and there still was nerve there.  

Scottma is right on!  Go to an endodontist that can do a root canal properly the first time out.

Best to you and hope you will be painfree.
Gellia

[scottma]

Seeing an endodontist is advised.