Dental pain every day for a year. In despair.

[opalescent]

I’ll try and summarise as best I can:

Last August I got a very mild toothache. My dentist did an x-ray, and said that I had a little bit of decay under an existing filling. She cleaned it out and re-filled. The pain got worse. She carried out a root canal and the pain got worse again. Eventually she extracted the tooth, when I couldn’t cope any more. She was baffled, and could not explain why the tooth had not settled.

I started to wonder whether I had caused the pain, by clenching and grinding in the night, and whether the pain had been due to that, rather than an issue with the filling. I knew I had some history of this, because I had ground one of my Canines flat, but it had never caused me pain before. I was given a soft mouth guard, which I have worn religiously ever since.

Since the extraction, I started to experience all sorts of different aches and pains in various teeth. In March (Just before lockdown), I had an adhesive bridge fitted, to fill the gap. The whole area of the bridge has now ached ever since it was fitted. It is the same deep ache and burn that the original tooth caused, so I am convinced that the cause is clenching and grinding, and now that i have a fixed bridge, the pressure is distributed across three teeth, but with only two roots- so much worse.

My whole mouth feels wrong. My teeth don’t feel like they fit together properly. I have had aching and pain every single day since last August. Countless dental appointments. I feel in despair. The dentist who fitted my bridge will not see me, as he is still only seeing emergencies.

I have paid to see two private dentists during lockdown, and both just said I needed a mouth guard. No one seems remotely interested.

If anything i feel my mouth guard exacerbates the issue. I bite down hard on it in my sleep, and feel that I am chronically bruising the ligaments under my bridge. The only way I can get relief is to wear an old mouth guard, which I have cut so that it covers only my front teeth. I know this is a disaster for my bite, so I try to do it only very occasionally for one or two nights when my bridge is particularly sore.

Please help!

[opalescent]

Bump 🙏🏻

[Literallyfedup]

Do you by any chance have an impacted wisdom teeth as that might cause a trapped nerve. Other than that - when you get up in the morning look at your tongue in the mirror and see if you see any teeth print on sides. That's scalloped tongue , you can look for images on the internet. If you have that then either you are clenching your jaw or your tongue is bigger than normal size due to a vitamin deficiency. This too can cause you to have misalignment in your jaw temporarily.

[opalescent]

Thank you literally. I no longer have wisdom teeth (all removed), but yes I have a scalloped tongue. I definitely feel that clenching my teeth is the problem, but I don't know what to do about it. I cannot seem to find a dentist who can help (beyond giving me a mouth guard- which only helps slightly)

[FredaFrogspawn]

There is an interesting article about this (in The Daily Mail) www.google.com/amp/s/www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-4125740/amp/Wearing-mouthguard-night-make-jaw-pain-WORSE.html

A quote: Professor Damien Walmsley, scientific adviser to The British Dental Association, concedes there is not enough evidence that dental intervention 'stops sleep bruxism'.

'But mouthguards do have some benefit in stopping tooth wear,' he adds.

Dr Raphael says TMD can be treated using painkillers, icing the area and eating soft foods.

'The best advice is to ask patients to concentrate on keeping their lips together, but teeth apart during the day.'

[Literallyfedup]

Have you tried an orthodontist instead of a regular dentist. They are usually more helpful when the problem is more related to misalignment, clenching, bruxism and not the tooth itself. You can also chew small pieces of ice but not sure if that works with a bridge.
You can get retainers which are made specifically for you but they do cost a lot. For both top and bottom it will cost around 160 pounds.

[onlywomennotmen]

Hi there, I had a similar experience... we could never find the cause of it but I have other nerve damage (another condition) so we assumed it was referred pain from nerve damage on extraction etc.... this is going to to sound odd but I deliberately practised relaxing all my mouth and cheek muscles during the day and bought this to wear at night (I had been grinding my teeth and caused multiple hairline cracks and suddenly had loads of decay over a short period after having children)

www.amazon.co.uk/Time2Sleep-Mouth-Guard-Grinding-Teeth/dp/B071X94G9V?tag=mumsnet&ascsubtag=mnforum-21

I don't know if these made a difference but it went away and never came back. Referred pain seems to be a vicious circle...

[GracieLane]

Sounds like classic bruxism. Get some bonjela/lidocaine gel and a really good sensitive toothpaste

[isabellerossignol]

If you can find a physiotherapist who specialises in TMJ disorder, they might be worth a try.

[opalescent]

Thank you all so much for these replies, I am interested to read about the possibility that an orthodontist could help? I will have a look. Interesting article about mouth guards too- I definitely feel that my mouth guard encourages my bruxism, but I'm too scared to sleep without it in case I crack a tooth!

[RHRA]

Has your dentist discussed referring you for an oral medicine opinion? Other than TMJDS, Atypical facial pain may need ruling out.

[Yubaba]

My MIL has tooth pain and she was diagnosed with trigeminal neuralgia.

www.nhs.uk/conditions/trigeminal-neuralgia/

[puffylovett]

The deliberately relaxing the jaw thing definitely helps me.

One of the best things I’ve ever found for jaw pain is Bowen Technique. It releases the fascia around the muscles, I love it. Worked wonders for my clenching in just a couple of sessions. Worth a try as they won’t keep you coming back if it’s not found to be working.

Hope you get sorted - there’s nothing worse than dental pain!

[Judystilldreamsofhorses]

I had similar in 2017 - cracked a filling in a molar with clenching, had it re-filled, had root canal, then the tooth extracted. Pain in lots of teeth, most of which were “virgin” teeth. I saw my dentist so many times she was practically my best friend, and she could find nothing wrong with any of them. I was referred to maxillo facial, and after a lot of tests, including an MRI, was diagnosed with atypical facial pain. I was offered medication to blunt my nerves but didn’t fancy the side effects.

I now have three month checks to make sure the pain is nerves, not my actual teeth (very anxious about having missed an appointment in lockdown) and do religiously wear a night guard because I definitely do clench. I am going in next week to get impressions for a new one, and my dentist is going to give my teeth a “visual inspection” since they are not currently allowed to do checkups.

[opalescent]

Thank you all so much for replying. @Judystilldreamsofhorses your experience sounds identical. I had read about atypical facial pain and I did wonder...is your pain resolved now? I feel really sad about the whole thing. My original dentist was lovely, but I started to feel like she was sighing internally when I walked in. I tried to restrict visits to times when the pain really was awful, but I really do need a long term answer of some sort.

[opalescent]

I did explore the idea of trigeminal neuralgia with my GP and he trialled me on carbamazepine. The first dose knocked me right off so I didn’t take it again. I’m not sure that’s the cause- the pain I get is a deep burning ache rather than a shooting nerve pain. TM is also supposedly agonising, whereas my pain is generally manageable, just depressing because it’s so persistent!

[Judystilldreamsofhorses]

Sorry, @opalescent I still have pain. I found that having a diagnosis actually made it more manageable, because I knew my teeth were physically sound. I kept thinking maybe my Dentist was missing something.

I take a high dose of vitamin B12, and a supplement called Alpha Lipoic Acid which both help. My pain is often a burning, pins and needles feeling, and can be in the gums, sometimes right up to my nose if it’s in that part of my mouth.

If I take a tepe brush and run it along the gumline where I have pain, it generally feels like a million spiders are crawling on the gums. That reassured me it’s nerve pain and not an actual tooth. (It’s also reassuring when the pain is in multiple neighbouring teeth, because logically I know it’s unlikely three teeth, none of which have ever had any work, have simultaneously gone bust.)

[DrMadelineMaxwell]

TN is agonising! But not always a classic lightning shock type pain. One diagnosic for it is whether any standard analgesics like ibruprofen make any difference to the pain. If they don't it could still be TN. Carbamazepine knocked me absolutely sick, but there are other meds to try and i had to stick with it until I had got to a decent level that would affect my pain.

What does sound familiar to me is not being able to pinpoint the pain down to any tooth in particular. That's how mine started. I had a tooth extracted and they then suspected dry socket due to the pain, but it wasn't that. Then I had the next tooth refilled in case it was the old filling causing the trouble. There are people who have had up to 7 teeth removed before they find it's not actually dental in nature.

[BobaTea]

@opalescent, how are you getting on now? Are you a lot better now?

I've this daily discomfort in my teeth for over a year too.

[ClaireandTed]

Look up exercises for TMJ and do them several times a day every day. I also find that an osteopath has really helped with my jaw pain. Like you I had dental treatment, an unnecessary root canal, and a tooth extraction. It was all caused by TMJ. I still have it but keep on top of it with the exercises and osteopath. Good luck, I really feel for you.

[Milanrae]

Hi I’ve just been reading your post and have been exactly the same for the last year had slot of dental work done in early pregnancy but have now got the same symptoms always in pain keep going to the dentist and don’t seem to get anywhere in so scared of loosing teeth! But like you said could still end up with the same pain.‘just wondered did you ever resolved it and how is it now ?

[DeusInAbsentia]

I could have written this myself.

I have hyper mobility and that does go hand in hand with tooth problems. Mine started in lockdown 1, horrific pain in a front incisor. My poor dentist was baffled, the tooth was solid and nothing indicated any issue. She told me to get a mouth guard as I was grinding and that might be it.
The pain was still there. I couldn't even tell you which tooth it was in as it seemed to move, and at one point was above where I'd had 2 teeth extracted years ago. Neither 30/500 Co Codamol or Ibuprofen relieved the pain and my dentist noted that it was something I could sleep through. She seemed to think a 'proper' toothache would wake me up, this didn't. I can also distract from the pain some times, if I'm busy it either goes or I don't notice it. It's worse when I'm sat watching TV and I'm thinking about it. None of this fits with a normal toothache.

I started to keep notes of the pain and noticed it seemed to get worse around the time of my period. This could be coincidental but dentist felt hormones could be affecting it, especially as it seemed to start when I became peri menopause.
I don't wear the guard anymore, I felt that pointless, and the pain does seem to have improved, this seemed to coincide with my starting HRT patches.
My jaw is extremely clicky with the HMJD so I've been trying to exercise that a bit and I've found resting my tongue on the roof of my mouth to relax my face helps. I've also found using a vicks inhaler gives relief, so much so at one point I was adamant it was my sinuses playing up.

Moving forward I've ordered Alpha Lipoic Acid to see if that helps, I also take a CBD Oil tablet which cant hurt.

I had a diastema fixed yesterday so my teeth are a bit sore in general today from holding my jaw open and having the front teeth pushed about but hoping it settles for the weekend again.

So sorry for us all. At least with a 'normal' toothache we can just get the tooth pulled and move on.

[Deedoo]

@opalescent this post xx

[opalescent]

Thanks @Deedoo

Cutting a long story short- I having had braces for a year, and now have a much healthier and improved bite. I still clench and grind at night, but the impact is reduced because my teeth come together more evenly. I have had Botox in my left masseter muscle several times (that's my real problem side), and it helps a lot until it wears off.

I am planning ti have two dental implants placed when I finish the orthodontic work, to further stabilise my teeth.

It's been a long and bloody expensive journey, but I am in a much better place that when I posted this, thank you for asking. Are you suffering similarly?

[Deedoo]

@opalescent yes suffering since I removed wisdom and did filing