I had a root canal treatment a few years ago. Everything was fine until about four weeks ago. Then it went crazy and started hurting again. I went to see my dentist. He did an x-ray and said that there was a new infection in the root canaled tooth. I agreed to a re-treatment. We did that. He gave me some antibiotics as well as some prescription pain meds. Three weeks later and I’m out of both antibiotics and pain meds. It had started to get better but the moment I ran out of meds, it flared back up. I called my dentist and he said to be patient because some people take longer than others to heal. Can you give me an idea how long this will take? I’m in a lot of pain and I get the impression my dentist is tired of hearing from me.
Jan
Dear Jan,
I’d like you to get in to see an endodontist (a root canal specialist) as soon as possible. I think you have a dental emergency on your hands and I am not convinced your dentist understands how these tooth infections work. There are a couple of things going on here. First, when a root canal treatment fails, a retreatment will only succeed about 1/2 the time. Each succeeding treatment has less of a chance of success. You need a specialist to get in there and do it.
Second, your dentist should have recognized that when you started to get better, but it flared back up after the antibiotics completed there is a new infection. This is Dental Infections 101. The fact that your dentist doesn’t understand this means he is in way over his head with your root canal.
Call an endodontist and tell them what is going on. If they can’t get you in right away, they will write you a new prescription in order to help keep the infection at bay.
This blog is brought to you by Lexington, KY Dentist Dr. John Weaver.
