Pain 2 Months after root canal - HELP!

[mjl311]

I received a root canal on an upper premolar (#4) March 4th 2009 by an endodontist in NYC.  Was in extreme pain afterwards and went on clindamycin. Pain did not go away so went back to endodontist and had him clean everything out, put in some disinfectant.  Pain after this was excruciating as well.  Switched to Flagyl, which seemed to help better than the other antibiotic.  After about a week and a half, I went back to the endodontist who then redid the root canal.  Post op pain after that procedure was alot less than the previous ones.  However the pain has not really gone away.  There are times when I can bite down/chew/tab on tooth without pain and theres times when there will be pain, worse than before root canal was even performed.  The endodontist saw no infection evidence (i.e swelling), no sign of another root, and no crack evidence and used all types of techniques to find evidence of a crack - hitting the tooth, bite sticks, light tests.  He suggested seeing an ENT, who told me to get a CT scan.  She called me recently and said she sees symptoms of chronic sinusitis.  I have an appointment to go see her soon but is there ANY way that my continued post op pain has to do with a sinus infection? And if so what treatment should I expect?  I do have facial pain/tenderness on my right side of my face in the cheek area and recently have had a strong ache on both sides of my upper teeth that comes and goes.  I wear a mouth guard every night to prevent grinding and have been using nasal/spray and rinse with no avail.  Please help!I

[Jerome Tsang, DDS]

You should probably post this question in the ENT section for treatment for a sinusitis.  My understanding is that they'll put you on antibiotics (which you already have taken) and generally this clears up the sinus infection.  Yes, a sinus infection can feel like a toothache and vice versa, a toothache can feel like a sinus infection.  Due to the timing of your toothache and root canal, I am leaning towards there being a problem with the root canal than a sinus infection.  It never hurts to seek another endodontist's opinion on the matter.

[kflorida]

Dear mjl311,
Just read your post. I am having a similar problem. It has almost been 5 months. I had a root canal (my first one ever) on tooth #3 (upper right) which became infected after crown placement after discovering two cracks in the tooth. Root canal was very painful, and I had lots of pain aftewards (just like you). Dentist tried "re-doing" the root canal at least two more times. My tooth still hurts and I can barely put any pressure on it. (I couldn't even tolerate the temp. crown). At the same time of root canal, just before dentist started it, I told her I was having pressure in my teeth (upper left) on the opposite side of the root canal. I asked her if what I was feeling was related to the "bad tooth" she said she didn't know. (she was more focused on the root canal tooth) Before I even had the root canal, I was complaining about pressure in my upper teeth. Dentist said maybe my wisdom teeth were causing this pressure. Well, I had the ones on the left side extracted (upper and lower left) hoping for some relief. Surgery went fine, but I still have the pain and pressure feeling. My pain also comes and goes. My dentist also made me a nightguard in case this may be from grinding my teeth, which doesn't seem to be helping. (I never had any problems before all of this started)
I hope you find some answers to this. If I do, I will be sure to post. My next step is to go to a neurologist and to see an oral surgeon at a large teaching hospital in my area.
Hope you are feeling better