I had a root canal treatment done five months ago, and it was very traumatic for me. My dentist wanted to put a crown on the tooth, but decided that it would be best to wait, since the tooth was still painful. When it never got better, my dentist referred me to an endodontist. He thought maybe he had missed a canal, and the root canal specialist would be able to find it.
Well, the endodontist re-did the root canal. He told me there were no missed canals and advised me that there would be some discomfort for a few days. However, it’s been four days and I still have pain in the tooth. I don’t want to lose this tooth.
How long do you think I should wait to see if it gets better before I assume something is wrong? It’s been five months since we started this and I’m not sure what to do. I do know that I don’t want anyone else to mess with my tooth.
Your advice would be greatly appreciated.
Regards,
Kari from Colorado
Kari,
The key to knowing if the root canal was successful is not so much the discomfort itself, but if it’s improving at all. If it is improving, even just in the slightest, I would be optimistic. Your endodontist said that you would be in discomfort for a few days. I don’t think four days is too long, provided that it isn’t getting worse. Especially if you’re biting on the tooth, it can take it a while to get better. If the pain is coming from biting on the tooth, one remedy could be to grind the tooth down so that you don’t hit it at all when you bite. Since you’re planning on getting a crown on it, taking it out of occlusion shouldn’t hurt anything.
You didn’t say anything about swelling, so hopefully there isn’t any. Increased swelling would be a problem—a sign that the tooth isn’t going to get better.
For our readers, I’d like to add that this kind of trouble with a root canal treatment isn’t typical. Most of them these days are fairly uneventful. But a certain number of root canal treatments will fail, and to be fair, we can’t rule out that possibility with your tooth. But you need to give it more time to know that.
The root canal failure that happened with your general dentist may have been an inadequate seal at the end of the root since it wasn’t the result of a missed canal.
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