AboutFrederick R. Liewehr DDS, MS, FICD Expertise I can answer your questions about root canal therapy in general. PLEASE DO NOT ask me to diagnose your particular problems or recommend treatment as I cannot do this without examining you and seeing your x-rays.
Experience I am a Board-certified endodontist, former university department Chairman, teach dental residents, and have a private practice.
Question I have been having strange pains after a root canal procedure done 5 days ago to the top right cuspid tooth. It hurts on and off and is pretty painful. Sometimes the pain lingers for minutes on end. It feels almost like I am biting on tinfoil or an electric current zap. I think it is triggered by chewing. I dont have pain to heat but it is sensitive to cold. I feel this shooting pain in the tooth right beneath it as well and about two days after the root canal I started feeling it on the left cuspid area as well. The dentist can not find the problem. She said the root canal was cleaned and looks fine. It was inflamed before she did the procedure though. she has not filled it yet because she wants the tooth to calm down but she took out the roots and put in some meds. Is it possible that she could have left a piece of the root still in the tooth? Why would i feel these electric shocks below and on the opposite side of my mouth? Are all these nerves connected? When I tap on the root canaled tooth I still feel pain. Is the pain coming from the area that the root was connected to? Did I experience some sort of nerve damage? I am very confused and at wits end. Just want the pain to go away :(. Please enlighten me. Thanks.
Answer Obviously it is very difficult for me to help you without seeing you, your radiographs, etc. However, I can speculate a bit. Endodontic therapy does not involve removing the root of your tooth, it rather consists of removing the soft tissue, which includes nerves, that resides inside your hollow tooth. Simultaneously, the inside is shaped and prepared to receive material that fills the now hollow space and prevents it from becoming infected. In your case, the most likely scenario is that all of this tissue was not removed, and that some nerve tissue remains. Cuspids are long teeth, and it is entirely possible that your dentist, particularly if she is not an endodontist, did not completely remove this tissue. So, the solution would be to re-instrument the tooth. As for the sensations on the other side of your mouth, there is no connection I can think of, and pain does not refer to the opposite side, so that may be due to another issue, with which I cannot help you by e-mail. If those sensations did not exist prior to the root canal treatment, they may be related in some way, but I can't tell you what that would be. At any rate, see if you can get the treated tooth retreated so it can settle down first, and perhaps the other symptoms will abate. Good luck.
