Toothache but nothing showing on x-ray?!

[Metalhead]

Bit of background: a few years ago my upper left molar started to become quite sensitive to cold and tender when biting down on things, so went to the dentist to get it checked. She said can’t see anything obvious, but maybe the old filling needs to be replaced. I went to get a second opinion from a private dentist with the same result, so had the filling replaced, which improved the sensitivity slightly, but didn’t get rid completely. Dentist said the only other option would be root canal, but as it wasn’t too bad at the time I left it.

Fast forward to last week and tooth suddenly became extremely sensitive, giving me shooting pain if anything cold came near it. The pain then started lasting longer, and eventually even hurt when I wasn’t eating or drinking anything. It was on and off, but was really bad and radiating all through the left side of my face. I was in tears a few times over the bank holiday weekend, and on Tuesday I couldn’t eat anything solid as the slightest touch to the tooth was agony.

Strangely, since then things have improved to the point where I feel almost back to normal, and when I finally saw the dentist today she again said there is nothing obvious to see on the x-ray! She’s given me some antibiotics just in case and suggested replacing the filling again to see if there is a hairline crack or anything underneath, but I’m worried that she won’t find anything and I’ll be left none the wiser. Does anyone have any ideas what could have been causing me so much pain when there is nothing obvious wrong with my tooth?! I feel like I’m losing my marbles!

I have very sensitive teeth and when I got a tooth out a few months ago I had similar to you on the opposite side of my mouth. Dentist said basically I had been clenching my teeth that hard over 4 days that I had caused it to have the shooting pain. My extracted tooth area had become infected, hence the clenching. I use sensodyne sensitivity and gum toothpaste so I started rubbing that on the sensitive bit a few times a day and it helped. Randomly it comes back if I have too much diluting juice though so I have to watch. Hope you work out what's causing yours as there isn't much worse than toothache!!

You can get a little thingy that goes over your bottom teeth at night so you can't clench /grind them. They really do help although they look pretty stupid.

This happened to me and it turned out to be trigeminal neuralgia - something to look into.

Try sensodyn rapid relief toothpaste, I have awful problems with teeth and this helped a lot, rub a little on the tooth neat. I use it all the time now as found certain toothpastes made it worse, in particular aquafresh........ No idea why🤷

Just rub sensodyne toothpaste and it'll be fine in a day

Sounds like the nerve is/was dying which won't be visible on the x ray. It might settle but will probably rear its head again or become infected down the line. Have you got a review appointment? A fracture in the tooth could be the reason the nerve is doing this yes and its not always obvious or maybe the previous damage to the tooth from decay. This is a common issue don't worry and the treatment will be root canal or extraction

Thank you all, I already use Sensodyne Rapid Relief and tried rubbing it onto the tooth neat, but that just made the pain worse!

thehillswerebright I think I might clench my teeth at night, will ask the dentist about this.

GreenCereal I looked up trigeminal neuralgia, but the symptoms didn’t quite fit as it said the pain is usually only for a few seconds/minutes and mine lasted for up to a couple of hours. Can I ask how you were diagnosed?

kwasiseyepatch that makes sense re: the nerve potentially dying, and yes my worry is that it will flare up again. I have an appointment in 2 weeks to remove the filling, although she did say to call earlier if the pain gets worse.

This is me right now, it comes and goes. I’m waiting on an appointment, I loathe dentists though, when I was about 9 I had to have 4 back teeth out due to abscesses, and one of the dentists fucked it up and I had to wait longer in the chair. I never even got a cavity til I was 15.... I’m 33 and only ever had one filling. Now one tooth is highly irritating, one minute it hurts like hell and then it’s fine for 3 days...

I had a molar tooth out yesterday with exactthe symptoms you describe. Nothing whatsoever to see on xray hiwever over xmas new year pain escalated greatly and on going back another dentist (who had funny microscope type glasses) identified a crack all the way from top to bottom of tooth (possibly even extending under). Tooth photos and showed me on the screen. Nothing to be dine but extract, am planning on getting an implant once everything is healed. Mine was almost certainly caused by a combination of having had it refilled and jaw clenching in the night.

Sorry to hear you had to have an extraction Tethersend01. At least you know the source of the pain is gone now.

My pain has almost completely disappeared now, but the gums above the tooth are now sensitive to touch and the whole area feels weirdly numb and swollen, even though I don’t think there is any actual swelling…

Sounds like the nerve has died and an infection is starting as the bacteria grow quickly in the dead nerve tissue. I'd phone on Monday if you didn't go in today. Get well soon

I also have trigeminal neuralgia, that was initially confused with dental pain. It wasn't the true, classic lightning strike type pain there in a flash then gone. It was more like labour pains that built for a minute then went. But it didn't hurt all the time. Atypical TN can be a burning, gnawing ache that lasts longer. One way to try and differentiate it is to take standard pain killers like ibuprofen. If they do any good it isn't TN.

I had that and complained about it for months but the dentist couldn’t find anything. She gave me antibiotics to take just in case it got worse which it did. After I took them the pain never came back and I haven’t needed any further treatment.

Just to update the thread: dentist removed the old filling last week and discovered a crack in the tooth running underneath. She’s put a new temporary filling in, and the tooth has settled down a lot. It’s still tender when I try to chew anything hard on that side, and sometimes there’s a bit of painless throbbing. I have another appointment at the end of February, and if it’s not completely settled then she will do a root canal.