Weird toothache... Any ideas what it could be?

[Somersaults]

I had dreadful toothache yesterday in one of my eye teeth. Took ibuprofen and paracetamol and eventually went to pharmacy to get something stronger because he pain was so bad. They couldn't really give me anything to take because I'm bfing but gave me some benzocaine gel to rub around the tooth and try to numb the root. I put that on before I ate last night and it did help a little. Oh, and it was also extremely sensitive to heat. I had to eat my tea cold.

I woke up this morning and it wasn't as bad as I expected. I noticed it hurt a lot when I smiled or opened my mouth wide but not much otherwise. I cautiously had a little poke around my gums today and above my tooth, p to where my gums meet my lips iykwim is a very painful raised line that hurts when I touch it and makes my tooth hurt. I can also really feel it if I touch just under the corner of my nose.

It feels a little like the kind of pain I had when I had fixed braces years ago. And it hurts to bite down like it did then too.

The tooth was filled in March and has been sensitive to cold since then but nothing like this.

Will it just go away? Do I need to go back to the dentist (please say no!)? Is it even a tooth thing or is it a gum thing and my tooth is kind of caught in the crossfire?

Please go to the dentist and get an X-ray. I used to be completely terrified of going and used to put it off and pretend I was fine. My dentist pointed out I was being my own worst enemy and they by self-medicating and postponing going to him I was allowing things to get worse so he'd HAVE to be more invasive. Now I get regular checks and if there's a problem in between times I go straight away (and petrify myself still - but a filling is far better than a root canal!!).

You will feel so much better knowing its all sorted and you are pain free.

Sorry but I don't think it will just go away. It sounds a bit like when I had an abscess in my gum, and that went from painful to agony over a few days, so I think you really have to take it to the dentist to get looked over properly.

dentist here. I think that the cold sensitivity might have been the result of either the filling being close to the nerve, leakage around the filling or the filling being left high to the bite. Either can eventually cause the tissue inside the tooth to become inflamed (technical term: acute pulpitis). This would cause the severe tooth ache you had yesterday. It would also cause inflammation at the end of the root. Eventually the nerve dies, and the severe pain goes. You are left with the inflammation (technical term: apical periodontitis) at the end of the root, which (like a boil) hurts when pressed (i.e. you bite on it, or press below your nose which is where the end of the root is for an eye tooth). The raised painful area might be where the swelling at the end of the root has affected the gum (it could later become a gum boil).

So yes you do need to get to a dentist. It is possible that at this stage not much will show up on an xray, but there are tests the dentist can do to confirm the diagnosis. TBH you have given a very text book and clear description of a very common situation. You are likely to need root canal. On the upside, root canal on a canine is usually straight forward, and as the tooth is now almost certainly dead it is very unlikely to be painful during treatment. You might be given a course of antibiotics initially, but they are not strictly necessary if you are not in too much pain and you can start the root canal in the next couple of days.

If you leave it it will probably grumble away, the inflammation at the end of the root either flaring up and making your face swell (acute abcess), or gradually expanding, which can cause a cyst. If left long enough the tooth can become loose and need to come out. I would get it seen to sooner rather than later.

It is possible that if you had gone back when the sensitivity was not settling that you could have avoided a root canal, but I suspect with what you have described that actually although you might have put it off, it would have happened eventually.

HTH

I got terrible toothache right before sinusitis...but listen to the dentist first!

It's not sounding good. Seems like I need to make an appointment ASAP

I saw a dentist this morning who said I will probably need root canal. He's
Described antibiotics, painkillers and a mouthwash in the meantime and I have an appt at the end of the month to go back.

Thank you for your help everyone

And that should say prescribed not described. Nursing and typing on an iPad don't go well together with a wriggly baby!

What Bonzo describes happened to me earlier this year only in my case we couldn't track down the tooth causing the problem. I had facial pain but none of my teeth hurt so I had to wait for it get bad and the abscess to become a bit clearer on an x-ray before my poor dentist could work out where to drill. That was bad.

BUT...the root canal afterwards was fine. People hype it up a lot but an eye tooth is right at the front so it wasn't any worse than just getting a longer than usual filling.

I just seem to have something in the back of my mind that says they inject into the nerve and that it really really hurts until it goes numb. I'm not good with pain, not sharp intense pain anyway.

somersaults of course you're nervous ,who wouldn't be .
But my dentist does totally painless injections .
I think he numbs the area first and then injects really slowly .
Keep strong ,remind yourself that no dentist wants to cause any pain and concentrate on breathing through your nose .

You see I didn't know that so I was not especially worried about the injections. (Don't they always have to inject into the nerve to numb it though? I've never ever given this any thought).

It honestly promisedly was no different to having an injection for a filling. And my dentist was like gingeroots, he numbed the area first and took his time.

My fear was that it would hurt when the anaesthetic wore off but it really did not.

Thank you. I've had an injection for a filling before so I'll cope if it's like that kind of injection. I just had it in my head from somewhere that because it involved the root it was a much deeper injection. I'm sure it'll be fine. Thank you everyone.

Injection for root canal is the same as for a filling. If the tooth is truly dead then younger not even need one. If the tooth is unusually sensitive I would give extra.

younger you might