Should I get a root canal?

Question

After sleeping with my face buried in my pillow, I awoke with severe pain radiating from the left side of my upper mouth/cheek area. After about an hour, the pain subsided to an area just above a molar.

I have no pain when I bite down. I don't have pain when I brush my teeth; my gums are not affected. I do have fillings in that tooth that are over 10 years old. Feeling with my tongue, i think one of them might be dislodged.
It will be several days before I can see a dentist. Any ideas?

Answer 1

Nobody on line can tell you what you need to do with the tooth. Only a dentist can tell you that. He has to look at you x-rays and evaluate your mouth.

I can, however, give you some ideas on how to get some relief sooner. If you have a regular dentist, you can call his office and tell them that you're in pain and they may call in a prescription of antibiotics and/or pain medication for you. Ask to be put on a cancellation list, so if anyone cancels an appointment, you can have the slot. Also, call around to different dentists at opening time, when they check voice mail and usually have some cancellations.

I hope you feel better soon!

Answer 2

This could be from a loose filling or you may have a crack or fracture in the tooth. Sometimes either of these can go undetected or need some type of stimuli to cause the pain which allows us to determine which one it is.

Sometimes with a loose filling you won't have pain unless something gets on the tooth to stimulate it; hot or cold that seeps in around the loose filling material. This sometimes goes unnoticed until decay causes pain or the filling itself breaks free from the tooth usually when the tooth fractures. Keep in mind that a loose filling makes the tooth weaker and is placing greater pressure during chewing or biting on the outer cusps tips of this tooth, making it a higher risk of possible fracture.

If you have a crack you'll have the same sensation or response to stimuli and the pain will linger. One way to check is to put something a little hard (a pen cap or hard plastic piece of that size) on the tooth and gently bite down using slight to moderate pressure. When you stop biting on it or "release your bite," do you feel a sharp twinge or pain that you experienced before? If you do, then more than likely you have a crack in the tooth. This could also be the reason you think the filling is loose, because it usually is. Usually the crack does cause the filling to break away from the tooth structure at the fracture, but the prep is holding it in the tooth, it's just not bonded to the tooth anymore. This is allowing micro leakage or liquids to seep under the filling closer to the dentin tubules and transmitting stimuli to the nerve faster. Then every time you chew on this tooth your causing the crack to separate (or push the crack wider as if in opening and closing it) allowing the leakage to seep in stimulating the nerve and spreading the crack making it larger, putting strain on the tooth structure. The only way to treat this is to have a crown placed to stop the crack from spreading or splitting the tooth down the root making it non-restorable.

These are usually the things I look for when a patient presents themselves with symptoms of pain for an hour and feeling that a filling may be loose, all that you have mentioned above. In any case it's something that you should let your dentist check out as soon as possible. Better to be safe than sorry when it comes to a possible fractured tooth. The longer you wait, the more possible damage to the tooth and with that the cost increases as well. Hope I've been of some help and that you will see your dentist soon to have this checked out. Better to be safe than regret it later. Good luck!

Answer 3

Root canals are done on teeth when the nerve inside the tooth has died and become necrotic. The pain comes from the area where the infected necrotic nerve has leaked its contents out of the root tip... deep inside the jaw bone....
pain from an abcessed tooth comes from nerves at the root tip since the nerve inside the tooth is dead and necrotic.....
one way to test this is to hold a small piece of ice on the tooth that has been in pain... if the tooth is sensative to the cold from the ice, you know that there is a living nerve in that tooth...... not an abcess....
a tooth that is very sensative to hot AND cold may have an inflamation of the nerve caused by decay... if left untreated, this inflamation can lead to nerve death of the tooth... ( abcess..)
a root canal is typically performed in either situation.
If a tooth has a cavity and is sensative to cold, but the pain leaves as soon as the cold stimulus is removed, can usually be treated with a simple filling.

Answer 4

You only get a root canal when a cavity has reached into the pul of a tooth. This is confirmed with x-rays from a dentist. Here is a recommendation for you pain get a small piece of cotton swab (very small piece) and place a few drops of oil of cloves on it and then place it in the cavity or allow the drops to go on the tooth. Oil of cloves is the liquid used in sedative fillings and can be purchased at any drug store.

Answer 5

Until you get some x-rays, you won't know if you need a root canal. You could try ibuprofen (Advil, Motril) or Tylenol. Combine that with an over-the-counter numbing agent like Anbesol.

Answer 6

go to the dentist for diagnosis, i beileve...u may have bruxism or clenching on ur teeth.....