tooth with root canal and permanent crown

[Igorot]

It started with crack tooth and was told need a crown. After the crown the tooth still hurts and I was told I needed root canal and so my dentist remove the permanent crown and did the root canal and again crowned. After 4 months I still feel sensation from the tooth. I was told to wait for at least few months. It has a mild pressure pain when touching with my fingers. It does not hurt to chew but the tooth hurts after chewing hard or chewy food. The  sensation or mild pain only felt by touch with my tounge or fingers. I can't quite explain I can only feel the mild pain especially in outside part of the tooth. Has anyone out there with the same situation. I am planning to call my dentist soon. But not quite sure what to say.

[Angel6809]

The tooth will probably be happier if it's not pushed or prodded at all.  My endo was only telling me to push mine once a week so as to make sure that I wasn't pushing it all the time, thereby making it more aggravated.   And he was trying to make a point that I should notice it feeling better as each week went by, if I did happen to push it.  

If you're fine with chewing softer foods on it and it doesn't start hurting afterwards then by all means keep chewing on it.   If you're about to eat something that is quite hard or chewy, I'd chew that food on the other side for the time being at least, just so as not to aggravate the tooth unnecessarily.   Week by week by week you should get to the stage where you can chew all foods on it and it won't start hurting afterwards.   Long slow process I know, but teeth can be weird sometimes.

I think if the root canal wasn't done properly, you possibly would have had a lot more pain by now and you maybe wouldn't be able to chew anything on it.   The endo told me it can take up to 6 months for some root canalled teeth to feel quite normal again, and yet a different tooth can have a root canal and feel normal with 48 hours.   There's no real logic why some teeth take longer than others to settle down.  Teeth are weird.

[Igorot]

Thank you so much, I remember your advice four months ago to wait for few months. The tooth is not that bad for now I am just so scared the root canal was not done properly and I am terrified of dentist. So do I purposely push the tooth once a week or chew on it once a week. I really tried not to chew any hard or chewy.  Once again thank you.

[Angel6809]

Yes I know exactly what you mean.   I have been in the same situation this year with a back molar.   Have been through the same sort of procedure as you, the crowning of the tooth previously because of a hairline crack, then just this year more pain in the tooth so a root canal was performed by an endodontist.   The tooth has taken months to settle.   I kept touching it with my fingers and running my fingernail along the outter part of the tooth and pushing it with my tongue, and it would hurt when I did this.   The two types of sensation I was feeling was the bruised achy pain you get when pushing something sore.  The other feeling I got I could only liken it to when you run your fingernails down a blackboard and you get that screeching sensation......that's the weird sensation I was getting when I used my fingernail across the rim of the tooth.   I told my endodontist and the best advice he gave me was STOP DOING ALL OF THAT !   Which made me feel REALLY silly but as he said, if something hurts when you touch it, then don't touch it.  

I was able to start chewing all foods on the tooth without it hurting and just like you the tooth would start to feel quite uncomfortable AFTER the eating had finished.   It's as if it was saying "hey you chewed on me and now I'm upset because of it".    But, it has stopped doing that now after a few months.   I chew everything and feel nothing afterwards.  Yes it can take that long unfortunately.   I found that if I was eating something really chewy or hard, I would make sure I chewed on the opposite side, just until the tooth got over its settling stage and regained its full strength.

Back to the pushing thing, my endo told me a root canalled tooth can sometimes hurt when it's pushed for up to 6 months after the procedure, but he said if I only pushed it once a week to see how it was feeling, he reckoned I would see that each week the push would hurt less and less.   But he said only push it ONCE a week, not continually.  And I'm happy to say he was correct.   It's been approximately 4 months and I've just pushed it now as I'm writing this......there's still a very small amount of pain but it's probably 90% better than what it used to be.  As he said, teeth only take so much aggravation before they start "talking back".  If I was you I'd refrain from purposely touching it with fingers and tongue.   I know it's hard because you want to keep doing this to see if it feels better, but the more you do it, the longer the healing process takes.   It's great that you are actually chewing on it without pain though.......I'm sure you will finish eating something chewy one day soon and you'll be able to say "hey the tooth hasn't started hurting!"    Good luck :-)