For Dental Professionals - Temporary Crown Pain

[Wonders10]

Hi everyone,

Let me preface this by saying that I am a huge dental phobe. Anxiety, the works, so please be kind in your responses. And yes I know that my dentist is the only one who can really help me, but just looking for others thoughts.

Backstory - I grind and clench my teeth, have been doing it for awhile now. I got a nightguard in October and have been wearing it religiously. The pain and morning headaches completely went away. I also have pretty sensitive teeth when it comes to having work done. For example, I had a cleaning also in October, and my teeth throbbed for about 24 hours. I mean ache all over.

One of my upper molars, next to last one, had a very large silver filling in it. It must have been at least 20+ years old (I'm 30). I noticed a little over a week ago that it was hurting a bit. Nothing major but I felt some discomfort here and there. Eating on it wasn't a problem and it wasn't sensitive to cold/heat. I took a very up close look and *thought* part of the filling had fallen out. So I unfortunately called the dentist who was able to see me last Monday (7 days ago). Turns out the filling didn't fall out but was making 2 small (his words, not mine) cracks in the tooth, hence some of the discomfort. Meaning, maybe I took some tylenol but I was fine without anything. So his answer was to put a crown on it. This was my very first crown. They did do an x-ray (thats how he saw the crack) and said the rest of the tooth and root was fine. So they did their thing and put on a temp. It didn's surprise me that it hurt for a couple of days since I'm so sensitive and they had done a lot of drilling. But it is 7 days later and it still hurts! I mean way worse than it did prior to me going in to see him. I'm on Advil and it works wonderfully, but does wear off and I am in pain again. I haven't even attempted to chew on that side at all (wasn't planning on it because I didn't want it to fall off). That tooth is also very sensitive to cold, which is was not at all before. The past 2-3 mornings, I have been waking up with a small headache and an achy mouth on the right side. I'm assuming my bite is messed up and I'm grinding more because I'm anxious. But eventually, the pain subsides and just feels like it is that tooth.

I really do not want to even think about the fact that I would need a root canal. I may need to be heavily sedated for that. But I just can't understand why its still aching? I've been telling myself that it is because that tooth is so sensitive combined with my grinding issue, but now I'm not so sure.

P.S. I wanted to add that I am a speech pathologist, so I am constantly talking, making weird movements with my lips, tongue, teeth and mouth and very exagerrated facial expressions and sounds. It's not just /s/ it's /ssssssss/. I noticed this past weekend when I was very chill and did not talk much, my mouth didn't hurt quite as much and/or the advil lasted all day. Today, back to work, my mouth was killing my by 3!

 

[mickeyplanner08]

OK, so can you still wear your bite splint? I couldn't when I had my top one done because it didn't fit right, and I totally know the pain you are describing. The pain was much better after I got my permanent crown on, but the cold sensitivity thing was not totally gone. I will say I had to go back in 3 times once I got my permanent one to have them adjust the bite splint and the crown. First it was just hitting funny when I bit down, so I had them file the crown, and then I had to have the bite splint adjusted because I was waking up at 2 or 3 am with just pounding pain in my jaw. Stick with it once you have your permanent one in, and it really will get better. I'm about 3 months out now, and except for a little cold/heat sensitivity I am really OK. Good luck!

 

[pat fan]

I'm assuming my bite is messed up and I'm grinding more because I'm anxious.

This could be causing some of your pain. I had a root canal and crown done fairly recently, and even with a root canal, it hurt for MONTHS afterwards! They had to keep putting off the crown until it settled down. I guess it's a big trauma to the area and since we use our mouths all the time, it can take a long time for it to heal properly.

One of my problems was that the temp. crown was too high so I kept whacking it whenever I closed my mouth. Do you feel like that tooth hits before others do? If so, go in and they can just shave off a tad so it won't hit anymore. It will still take a while to calm down, but it should help.

And they may need to see if a root canal is in order. I was pretty scared too, but it was actually a piece of cake! Much better than the old days when I had some done, that's for sure!

Good luck, dental stuff is pure misery

 

[Wonders10]

I didn't mention this in my previous post, with all the rambling I did, I forgot!

Anyway, my bite apparently has been messed up for a long time, aggravated/caused by the grinding. Not sure which came first. Anyway, my back teeth hit before my front teeth so the temp crown along with all my other back teeth are taking all the brunt of my grinding. I do still wear my nightguard. They said it would be okay and the temp looks shockingly like my actual tooth, without the black filling. Every time I'm there, the dentist always seems so in awe of how messed up it is. He had to send special notes in with the crown and my nightguard so they would believe the impression was accurate since to a lab tech, it would look like I wasn't biting right. ha, who knew?

I have allergy issues in the morning occasionally where I sneeze tons, and twice I bit down weird and felt like I jammed the crown up further. It felt odd for a little bit, not painful, but eventually "shifted", I guess.

I don't go back for my perm until the 10th! It seems like so far from now!

As a side, I took just one advil (not my usual 2) about 45 min ago and within 2 minutes, I feel 100%. So that is good, IMO, that it responds that well to just 1 pill.

Thanks for your replies!