Throbbing Pain After Root Canal And Crown

[Lenoxalexis]

One week ago I had a root canal and permanent crown done on the same day.  I had extensive pain for several days after - throbbing pain any time I tried to chew even soft food and throbbing pain when sleeping.  I went back to the dentist and they found a small piece of cement stuck between my tooth and then did an adjustment to the crown.  They put me on two different antibotics.  Fast forward, I have been on the antibotics for several days and still have extensive throbbing pain while sleeping - it is not as bad during the day.

HELP!!!!  I had planned on trying to get pregnant after this was done, but now I'm scared because I have to constantly pop advil to alleviate the pain.

Backround about this tooth - about 3 or 4 years ago I had two fillings put in and another dentist told me that a cavity had formed under the fillings and that I would need a root canal and crown because the cavity was too close to the nerve.  I did experience severe sensitivity to the tooth about the same time that they told me this.  When I orginally had the two fillings done I had this same problem for about 6 months - constant pain at night, etc.

I do not understand why I am having pain during the night if there are no nerves left.  Do I have an infection?  What can I do to fix this problem?

[foofoo99]

I am glad everything went ok with you.

[Angel6809]

Mr dear foofoo, if you read Mammo's post carefully, he/she stated the "ONLY" reason for the pain would be from a nerve left in the tooth.   I was disagreeing with this statement.   It may be one of the reasons but is certainly not the only reason.  I simply informed Lenoxalexis that in my case my tooth just had to calm down after all the work done on it (which may or may not be their case.....as you said every case is different).  I had no nerve left in the tooth and no pressure on it from opposing teeth either.  I had an endodontist work on my tooth, not a dentist.  And he didn't even have to check out things on the internet from other dentists' reports......his high powered microscopic equipment told him everything he needed to know about my tooth :-)

[foofoo99]

Dear Angel, that's why you have to take the pressure  off of it, so you don't have to take painkillers for 3 weeks. Some times, there is an extra nerve or canal that does not show up on xray, mammo is right, but every case is different. This should be the rule,  if the pain goes down every day that is a good sign. But after 2-3 weeks, even if you have a little pain,  or temp sensitive on that tooth , it better be looked at again ,before anything  else is done on it. I don't want to find out,  there was an extra nerve in it, and I have already placed a post and crown on that tooth.    Let me give you an example,  in dental school you learned how many canals a particular tooth can have. the upper central incisors always have one canal you are told. 6 months  ago I do this root canal on this patient,  and she kept on complaining  about the front tooth being sensitive to warm or hot temp.  4  months ago I saw her,  took an  xray (Radiograph) showed no infection . the tooth was not really hurting her constantly, so from not being able to think outside the box,  I assumed there is nothing wrong.  Saw her 2 months ago, same complaint, this time tested tooth for heat,    patient was right,  tooth was sensitive to heat ! This is how the internet comes handy.   I check extra nerve on central incisor,  sure enough, a few reports have come from other dentist  that extra canals have been found ! With pictures, and how to take  the xray, and what will you see ,  and lots more. So you see Angel,  how we have to think outside the box. There is more to it, that's enough before I give you  a head ache.

[Angel6809]

Just because the tooth is aching constantly doesn't necessarily mean that the dentsist has left any nerve in there.  It's quite possible that all the nerve is gone and I'll tell you why from my experience.  I had a highly skilled endodontist perform a root canal on a bottom molar and the tooth was in constant pain for 3 weeks afterwards and yet there was absolutely no nerve left in that tooth.  The problem was that the tooth had had so much work done on it previously (sounds similar to your tooth Lenoxalexis) that it could only take so much before it started to "talk back" as they say.  After my root canal it ached constantly for 3 weeks before all of a sudden the aching subsided.   It basically just needed time to get over all the work that had been done on it, but there was definitely no nerve left inside the tooth.  It may just be a waiting game with your tooth, like it was with mine.  There's still a lot of nerves around the base of the tooth in the ligament which can often be the source of pain after treatment.  The more work a tooth has done on it, the longer the healing process takes each time unfortunately.  

A couple of reasons why your pain intensifies when you're trying to sleep - first of all your body's defences are a lot lower at night-time because of fatigue so pain always seems to increase at the end of the day.  Also when your body is in the lying down position, it can increase pressure sensitivity in your head.  I've read to help with dental pain at night-time try sleeping with your head more elevated than normal, maybe with a couple of pillows underneath.   Although in my case with the constant aching, there was no infection so antibiotics were pointless, it was the good painkillers that got me through.  I feel so sorry for you because I know exactly what you're going through and it's horrible.  I hope it starts to feel better very soon.

[foofoo99]

It's standard procedure when root canal is done,  to remove all pressure from it ,  for at list a week.  Some of the cement from the root canal treatment might come out from the tip of the root, which can happen,  and cause inflammation,  that is why you can't have even normal tooth pressure on it, until the inflammation goes down. The pain is not going to go away until the dentist removes the contact with the opposing tooth.  If the tooth keeps on hurting after that, then it could be remaining nerve  like mammo said, or many other possibilities.  Sometimes when a crown is placed or filling, they might be so tight in between the teeth, in which that can  also contribute to the pain.

[mammo]

Something is obviously not right.   I would insist that your dentist look closely at what is going on.  The only thing that would cause this bad, throbbing pain would be if he didn't get all of the nerve out during the root canal.