Excruciating pain after root canal. Please help!

[HolyMackerel1]

I've had a root canal on a upper molar this afternoon. 3/4 of the way through the procedure I started to feel pain. Managed to tough it out until the end but told the dentist once she had finished.

She was surprised I could already feel pain and offered more anaesthetic. This did nothing to help the pain. It's now been an hour since the root canal and I can't describe how bad the pain is. It's excruciating.

My whole right side of my face is throbbing. The pain is radiating to the lower jaw as well as the upper and if my upper molar so much as touches the bottom one I get a jolt of agonising pain.

I know its only been an hour but I've had a root canal on the molar next to it a few years ago and felt no pain whatsoever.

I'm really worried something has gone wrong.

Has anyone else experienced extreme pain after their root canal? Is it normal and will it settle down in a few days?

That doesn’t sound right. I’m not an expert though. Poor you. Could you ring them before they shut for the weekend?

I had this, I had pain for 3 months until I asked for it extracted, think the tooth had fractured

Some soreness is normal but you shouldn't be experiencing extreme pain like you're describing. Get back to the dentist; it's possible the tooth is fractured or there's an underlying infection.

@freakyoldhermit That was my first thought when I got out and was walking back to my car and could already feel throbbing pain - that it's fractured.

I really hope not as I really wanted to save this tooth!

The dentist told me she's working tomorrow so I wonder whether I should wait until tomorrow morning to see if it settles down or not and call her then.

Or perhaps I should call now in case there are no appointments tomorrow.

I would absolutely call now OP. That is definitely not normal - I've had 3 root canals and none were painful.

You need to ring now, that's not normal.

And in future, please speak up if you're in pain!

I've just phoned them and the receptionist said he will speak to the dentist and call me back.

I couldn't speak up as I had the rubber dam in my mouth and felt like I was drowning in my own saliva so any movement of my mouth probably would have made me choke and start coughing. I didn't want to compromise the root canal so just waited it out.

I've taken a tramadol now to try and ease the pain .

Fair enough about not being able to physically speak, but you can always put your hand up to ask them to stop - it's really important to do that if you're hurting in the future.

Yes I think in the future I'm going to ask the dentist before we start what I should do if I start experiencing pain and can't speak!

I was just so afraid of starting to choke on all the things in my mouth and then damaging the tooth while it was being worked on.

How is it now, OP?

@elliesmummy19 It has improved slightly, I wouldn't consider it excruciating any more thank god but it's still very very painful. Chewing is an absolute no go as I get a severe sharp shooting pain if I do that. Wearing my retainer is impossible too as it pushes on the tooth and causes pain like yesterday.
I'm hoping it'll keep improving over the next few days.

Sorry, but that's really not normal after a successful root canal. It sounds like the tooth is fractured unfortunately.

@CulturalNomad This is my fear. 😢 I'll make an appointment to be seen again. Sadly I think the dentist will say I'll need to see a specialist with a microscopic camera to be able to diagnose a tooth fracture so she will probably only offer to extract.

Did this ever settle for you?

@HolyMackerel1 did the tooth settle in the end