I had to post this since this has been my life for the last few years. I got sick about 4 or so years ago and haven't been able to feel like my old self. I was a person that would be up by 7am and couldn't wait to fall asleep so I could get up early to start my new day. Well I had a toothache and found I needed a root canal ( I never missed a 6 month cleaning). I got that taken care of, but I still didn't feel well, so I went to my doctor and she did tests and said well everything looks good, it's probably viral so just let it run it's coarse. This was in Sept. 05. I still was sick so I went back to the doctor in November and she did more test and found I had mono. I had to say I was happy because that explained why I couldn't pull myself out of bed and it wasn't that I was being lazy. I thought well I can deal with this it will only be a little while longer. Well I was wrong.I had a mammogram and had to have a lumpectomy, so I thought oh now I will get better. That didn't happen. I had a lot of other things done and had hope that that would make me better. Not yet.
I decided to go to another dentist because I had another really bad toothache and was referred to him by a co-worker of my husbands. He found I needed 3 root canals and then we would need to have crowns put on them when they were finished. This all happened in about a 2 year span. I thought well I definitely will get better. Nope, I needed 2 more root canals. When I was ready to get the crowns fitted, I told him I have a swollen gum, he looked at it and said yep it's an abscess, oh well lets get started. After he was done he referred me to a periodontist and sent me on my way with no antibiotics. This was on a Friday well by Friday night I developed a 103 fever and hurt everywhere. On Monday I called my insurance to get a name of a periodontist because I didn't trust the name he gave me.
I ended up going to a Dr. Neilson. He was able to fit me in on Monday. When I went into his office I felt my gums were also swollen on the other side. I showed him and he told me I would need to have both molars removed because the other dentist fractured the root, the molars I just spent thousands of dollars with root canals and crowns. I would also need to have bone grafts after he pulled them. Another $2,500.
I have a friend that referred me to a general dentist she works for. He was very nice he made new temps for the other teeth we were waiting for crowns, because the other dentist put temps on that was hurting and digging into my gums. It was so different to go to a dentist that wasn't mean to his assistants and treated you with respect.
I still wasn't feeling like my right side was healing from the extraction and bone graft, I couldn't get out of pain. If I had anything sweet it went straight to a nerve. My general dentist filled a cavity and put a temp bridge in. I was a little worried because my periodontist said don't do anything with that area for 3 to 6 months. The other dentist said it would be fine, that was just if I was going to do an implant. I continued to hurt and thought maybe he was wrong. My husband and I would keep looking in my mouth to see if we could figure it out. I keep saying the pain is where there is no tooth under the bridge, and I thought I was crazy.
I made another appointment with my general dentist and had him look at it again. He thought maybe it was the back molar or just healing from the trauma from all the work that has been done. He put me on another antibiotic and refilled my pain meds. He also said if it isn't feeling better by time my bridge came in then I would need to see an endodontist ( I had no idea there were so many different kinds of dentists). My bridge wouldn't be in until April 27th. I couldn't get out of pain even with the pain meds, which he refilled like 3 times ( I thought I was being the biggest baby).
I was referred to an endodontist but couldn't get in for a week. When my general dentist called they were able to get me in the next day. I was so scared no matter how many times I've been to a dentist you never get use to it.
Even thou I was scared I was so happy to get whatever was wrong fixed. They took x rays a lot of different kinds. The Endodontist came in and said wow I can't see anything. Then they did another kind of x ray which splits the tooth in half and had me bite different ways and put cold things on it. I said well that hurts but not any worse then it has been. Then he removed the temp bridge and did the same things with cold and biting and I thought I was going to punch him and his assistant...LOL, it hurt so bad. I was so thankful for the temp bridge it blocked even more pain. He said well we found the problem (40 min later) and I'm like ya think...LOL. He said what you have is "Irreversible Pulpitis" you need a root canal (that's different). He also said I have no idea how you were able to live with the pain, which made me feel better.
When he numbed me up, he started with 4 shots and said I will give it about 15 min so you are really numb. When his assistant came back she tested it again with the cold to see if it was ready, o my heck, again it killed. He came back in and did about 5 more shots. It took about 5 min and I was out of pain for the first time in a long time.
I am healing now and it is still painful but nothing like before. I have 3 new friends, I guess you can say I paid for them...LOL.
I am praying I'm on my way to feeling better after all these years, so I can pay it forward to all the wonderful people in my life that has been with me through this long haul. I will remain positive. I've left out a lot of my other health issues or this post would have been 50 pages..LOL
