Expert: Frederick R. Liewehr DDS, MS, FICD - 9/3/2006

Question
I had a root canal started on a lower right molar approximately three weeks ago. The doctor had great difficulty numbing the tooth and resorted to drilling into the tooth and numbing the nerve directly (which was extremely painful). Since the procedure I have had pain and pressure in my jaw, ear, head and neck, running down the underside of my arm and into my hand, numbness in my face, lips, and fingers on that side and a generally "sick" feeling (muscle aches and pains, weakness, dizzyness, lightheadedness, inabilty to concentrate, etc). The root canal was to be completed 4 days ago but I opted to have the tooth extracted instead, hoping this would solve the problems. It has not. My dentist is at a loss as to why this is happening so yesterday I went to the hospital to try and find out what was wrong. X-rays, cat scan and bloodwork showed nothing. I'm starting to feel like I'm losing my mind. What could be wrong?

Answer
Gosh, Karen, I can't possibly think what might be wrong either. The only thing the dentist did was work around that tooth, and while I could understand pain and so forth in your jaw from multiple injection trauma, I can't figure out the part with the pain/pressure/numbness in the arm and hand. There just isn't any connection in the area he was working!

I had a case not long enough where I worked on a teen-age boy who had suffered head trauma and wasn't quite right. After I worked on him, Mom called to say that when the anesthesia wore off he couldn't hear. I told her I couldn't figure out why that would be, but said just wait a day or two to see if things sorted themselves out. I wasn't sure the boy was accurately relating what was happening anyway. I called her the next day, and she said things were no better. Ultimately I told her to go to the ER and meet our oral surgeon resident on call to have a look. She couldn't find anything, either, or figure out a dental cause. Monday things were still no better, so I had a friend staff oral surgeon look at him and do you know what it was? The kid had so much wax in his ear that he couldn't hear.

So, I'm not saying you have wax in your ear, I am just saying that it is possible that the two things occurred simultaneously and one was not responsible for the other. If it involves your hand and so forth, and you have the other physical symptoms you mention, plus you have had the tooth removed, it doesn't sound like a dental problem. I hope the physicians can figure out what is wrong.

Good luck.
Dr. Liewehr