Two abscesses in 6 months and now another tooth hurts!

[Pinkyponker]

OK so in June I had an absess upper first molar which was root canalled. Then in December I had another absess occur on my lower first molar same side which I am having a root canal treatment for today!

But now for the past week I have had pain in my lower molar on the opposite side and I fear this will be yet another root canal... And another 500 or so quid!

I am having bad anxiety over this. These teeth had fillings done about 15 and 20 years ago and I have not had problems since then and have always visited the dentist 6 monthly!

I don't understand why all of a sudden I'm having such severe tooth problems and this is making my anxiety sky rocket this week!

I had full xrays in June before the first root canal and the lower molar one I'm having root canaled was flagged up then as being an issue in the near future but no problems picked up the other side where I'm now having the pain!

What a nightmare! I went through something similar. I had great teeth for years then lost 3 in the space of a few months. I now have another abscess on a front tooth and that will have to come out eventually. I don't want a big hole in the front of my mouth so am faced with paying about £2000 or £3000 for an implant. As for the xrays, they sometimes miss problems. I was crying in agony when I had awful toothache yet the dentist had done an xray a couple of weeks before and it looked fine. When he looked again the tooth was so rotten that it almost fell out in his hand! He said the location of the decay meant it happened shown up on the xray. I clean my teeth obsessively, floss and use those little brushes so it's a mystery to me that my teeth can suddenly be do bad. Sending sympathy!

That's meant to say "because of the location of the decay it HADN'T shown up on the xray"

I had a spate of pain and problems a few years ago, and actually had one lower molar out after the root canal failed, but it was all down to clenching my teeth due to stress. It was a bit of a vicious circle, because the more I worried about my teeth, the more I clenched them. Anyway, some of the pain I was experiencing was due to teeth/the ligaments they sit in being “bruised”, and they did eventually settle down once my dentist had a mouthguard made for me. Might you be clenching/grinding without realising?

Like you, I had never skipped a six monthly checkup, and it had been about ten years since I had previously had any dental treatment. I had three root canals in about nine months (including the tooth I eventually begged my dentist to extract - she could have referred me to a specialist but by that time I was SICK of it!) but the teeth all had big fillings in, which I aggravated/broke with clenching. The mouthguard doesn’t stop the clenching, but it stops me knackering my teeth, and I wear it any time I get into bed, even if I just lie down for half an hour with a headache/period pain. Initially it was hard to get used to and made me gag and drool, so I wore it watching tv and “built up to” wearing it at nights, and within a week it was fine. I now can’t sleep without it, like a child with a dummy!

I hope you get things sorted, and fully empathisecwith the anxiety.

I definitely clench my teeth. These two in particular that have had the root canals yesterday and few months ago I wake up and they are the main contact points within my jaw!
I have an upper essix retainer and I did buy a lower mouth guard but haven't braved wearing in at night yet but I definitely need to start!

There was no issues seen the other side yesterday, he took xrays so that was clearly my own anxieties playing tricks on me as the pain has pretty much disappeared from that side today.... Obviously the new root canal from yesterday is slightly achy but that's to be expected!