Idiopathic dental pain?

[seeyouinanotherlifewhenwearebothcats]

Hi all, hope someone can advise because I’m in a lot of pain. I had an upper canine extracted in August. Advised to wait 8-10 weeks before getting a bridge or implant in. That was fine. Shortly after the removal I began to experience sinus pain only on the left side where the tooth was extracted. I had facial pain and nasal discharge so dentist gave me a 5 day course of metronidazole. This eased it a bit but I didn’t feel it fully cleared it. I gave it another couple of weeks and it continued so went back. This time got 2 day course of amoxicillin. Seemed to be it for a while. Then some time later it returned again. So another round of metronidazole. Again some relief for a short time. But by last week the pain was all through my gums both top and bottom on left side. Dentist did x rays of top and bottom and cannot find what is causing the issue. There are no hairline cracks, no fillings needing replaced. But I am in agony. I am living off painkillers and cannot sustain this. Now today the whole bottom left side is horrendously sore, less pain in the top. But I can’t bite down because the bottom teeth are so sensitive. Dentist described this as idiopathic dental pain. Has anyone experienced this or any advice? I am feeling a bit hopeless as to how to fix this or relieve this pain. Thank you.

Did he check if all the teeth on that side ( top and bottom) were alive, at least a basic cold test?
Has the extraction site of the canine completely healed over? If not, or anyway, do you get any‘bubbling’ if you blow your nose or sneeze.
Any worsening pain with hot or cold?
Did he use crack checker a few times on every tooth?
If it started immediately after the extraction it might be worth having an image if the sinus if no o the cause of pain can be found
does changing your head position help at all?

Thank you for the reply. No, no cold test. I had “bubbling” in the sinus in the weeks following and when I leaned forward I felt worse pain and pressure in sinus. But the pain doesn’t seem to be in sinus anymore, it seems to be on the bottom teeth 😩 I’d say worse with cold. Mouthwash started to be the first irritant. Yeah the extraction side has healed really well according to dentist.

Sounds like a lower tooth is dying off. This fits with the mouthwash, cold etc…
But it is also very common not to be able to tell the difference between top and bottom pain once the nerves get irritated.
Slightly concerning that you had bubbling after the extraction. Please move your head from side to side etc… and be sure it’s not that… also any strange taste or smell ?

No no issue with moving side to side and no strange taste or smell. Is it just a case of waiting now for the tooth to die?