I had an emergency root canal while on a trip in France with my university before I fell and damaged one of my front teeth. The other front tooth was fine. When I returned home, my dentist checked everything out and placed a dental crown over the root canal saying that everything looked good. Fast forward about a year later, and the crowned tooth became sensitive. I went in to see my dentist. He did x-rays and messed about with it but could not find anything wrong with it, so he sent me to an endodontist. The endodontist said the pressure is probably coming from the next tooth because it looks like I’ve been clenching my teeth. Neither of them of them have done anything for the tooth and, even though it has stopped hurting, I am worried there is a real problem. Otherwise why would it be absolutely fine for a year and then start hurting?
Amelia
Dear Amelia,
If they did a proper root canal treatment on you then that tooth should not have any pain because the nerve was removed. Sometimes, when a root canal is done on a back tooth, there could be a hidden canal that gets missed, but front teeth are very easy so this should not be an issue. Plus, you had two dentists, on separate continents, look at the root canal when you first got it done, both of them said it looked fine. Because of that, I don’t think the root canaled tooth is the problem.
Bear in mind that I have not examined you. That being said, I actually think it is the tooth beside the one with the dental crown that is the problem. When you damaged your front tooth, the adjacent tooth likely experienced trauma as well. It is not unusual for an injured tooth to not show symptoms at first. Some can take a couple of years.
Not having the problem show up on the x-ray does not surprise me. It will not show up until the inflammation progresses to an infection that starts to spill out of the tooth. You don’t have a dental emergency at the moment. But, if it starts hurting again or you develop a pimple on your gums, then that means the adjacent tooth will need a root canal treatment as well.
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