Painful tooth?

Question

Brief history - I didn't go to the dentist for 9 years (stupid - I know) and then around a year ago I developed a bad toothache and had to go. I had to have a root canal in that tooth, and I ended up getting fillings of varying sizes in pretty much all my other molars/premolars. Anyway, I finished with all the fillings etc about 4 months ago and everything was fine, but over the weekend I've started to get a toothache again and it's getting worse. It's in one of my back teeth on the bottom left, it's got a pretty big filling in it, that covers a lot of the top of the tooth, but it was done about 9 months ago and never gave me any problems until now.

Any ideas what the problem could be? I've made an appointment to see my dentist on Wednesday but I'd like to know what the likely problem is, and what he's likely to do.

Answer 1

If it's a really big filling it will be deep and will be very close to the pulp and this can cause pain and sensitivity.
When a large cavity is being prepared, a lining of Zinc Oxide Eugenol is normally placed inside the cavity, this is to insulate the the pulp against conduction of heat/cold of non metallic fillings.
If the cavity has been lined inadequately this may result in the
death of the tooth and the severe pain your feeling maybe the nerve actually dying.
What the dentist maybe able to do is to remove the old filling and put a tempoary filling put in, Kalzinol is what we use in my surgery, this is a medicated dressing and will kill off any infection, it's normally placed inside for about a week and then you return to the surgery, if the pain has eased the dressing can be removed and the permament filling replaced, however if your still suffering pain RCT maybe your next step.
Hope this has been of some help

Answer 2

You've described pain typical of a cavity. There is no home remedy to make this go away. If you don't find a way to beg or borrow about $100-150 to get it fixed today, you will lose your tooth within a year. An extraction will cost about exactly the same amount. If you let the cavity get bigger, you will end up needing a root canal treatment and this will cost $500-1,000. Maybe it's already reached that point, but I have not seen you or your x-ray. I'm sorry that there's no good news, except that you might be able to get off relatively cheap while still saving your tooth if you scrounge some money from somewhere and get in to the dentist soon. Very soon.

Answer 3

Maybe the cavity wasn't 100% treated when you got the filling. And now it is spreading under the filling. The dentist will probably remove the filling and then completely eliminate the cavity. Worst case scenario: another root canal.

Answer 4

he might give you another root canal..im sorry:( if your having that much pain that what you need.its great the filling lasted 9 months but a nerving is dying or it is infected anyways he'll get you out of pain...if it hurt real bad schedule an emergency appointment on tuesday call early in the morning they should get you out of pain right away

Answer 5

Sometimes, large filling can irritate the pulp - colloquially called: the nerve. If it is the case, you may end up with another root canal treatment.

Answer 6

Could be really sensitive because it is such a large filling. I have a tooth I broke (not much of the tooth left) & that plays me up now & again because it is such a big deep filling.

Good luck

Answer 7

don't have an answer for your problem, but for the pain, take
2 200 miligram ibuprofen (motrin), and 1 extra strength tylenol. The motrin will make the tissue swelling around the tooth go down b/c it's an anti inflammitory and the tylenol will take the edge off of the pain.

Answer 8

I ran into something similar. The first thing that comes to my mind is that the tooth is probably abscessed and will have to be taken out.

Until it is, keep your teeth as clean as you can and eat soft things.

Feel better. That's painful, I know.

Answer 9

Its possible the nerve died in the tooth or you have an abscess.

Answer 10

10mm drill, on slow