Oral Health Community

Had a filling in #19 as a young teen for a "soft spot" in the crevice. Filling needed to be replaced when I was 20 because our elderly family dentist said it was leaking. He tried to use composite, which was new to him at the time, and had problems putting it in. He finally thought he got it right, but it fell out of the tooth a day later. Went to a new dentist who put an amalgam in. Within a week, the tooth cracked and the filling fell out. Went to ANOTHER dentist, who performed a root canal and put a crown on.


The root canal seemed fine, and the crown never gave me any problems except for the margins, which were so bad that it was almost impossible to floss around the tooth (floss would always snag, break, get stuck). When I was 30, a new dentist did a crown on another molar for me. He did such a beautiful job that I asked if he could re-do the old crown on #19 because of the margins. He did, and when he removed the original crown, he showed me the stuff that was in the canal. He said, "I have no idea what this is. It looks like dirt!" It was brown and crumbly. He cleaned the canal, re-filled it, and put a new crown on.

I had no problems with that crown until two years ago (age 45) when part of the porcelain on the top surface cracked off. I didn't do anything about it for about 5 months, but at my next 6-month cleaning, I asked my current dentist to replace it (the slightly-sharp edge was bothering me). He did, and within 2 days of putting the new crown on, I was having really severe, radiating, aching pain in the tooth and my jaw. I have a super-high tolerance for pain (natural childbirth 3 times, no meds), but this was truly bad. It started on a Friday afternoon and the dentist wasn't in again until Tuesday. By Tuesday, it was feeling slightly better and the dentist said it might have been the result of the ill-fitting temporary and to wait and see. The pain continued to decrease, but never went away completely. When I went for my next cleaning about 5 months later, I complained of the intermittent aching and a new symptom of heat sensitivity, so the dentist sent me to an endodontist.

Endodontist tested for cold sensitivity--boy, did I feel that! He drilled through the crown and put antibiotics in. I went back a few weeks later and he re-treated with antibiotics because the pain was still there. Went back in 2 weeks and it seemed better, no significant pain, no cold sensitivity. He re-did the root canal and then sent me back to my dentist to have a filling put in to seal it.

That was 6+ months ago, and I'm still having intermittent pain. Yesterday and today my jaw has been aching and it hurts when I chew on that tooth. The pain isn't severe, but it's really bothering me. What in the world is wrong??? Should I just have the tooth extracted at this point, and if so, what problems will that cause me? BTW, #20 (or maybe #21) was extracted when I was 11 for braces, and I had my impacted wisdom teeth out when I was 17.

I remembered that the endodontist tapped on my tooth with an instrument to see if I felt pain. When I tap on any of my other teeth right now, I feel nothing but tapping. When I tap on #19, I feel pain--NOT in the teeth next to it, JUST in that one, and it goes down into my jaw.

I keep thinking/hoping that maybe it's all in my head, but I'm the kind of person who never gets sick, never has health problems. It's just not normal for me, so it's really worrying me. Could it be an infection?

Afterthought: Just talked to a friend who said she had a similar problem and ended up getting a "root amputation," which solved her problems. I've never even heard of that.

Thanks for any thoughts/advice you can give...