Did you know the older you get, the nerve roots in your teeth diminish? I never knew this. For a month I suffered with pain in my lower jaw and was back and forth with appointments between the dentist and a root specialist. First my back tooth gave me issues and a root canal was done through the crown I already had. It was better, but I still had jaw and cheek pain. The dentist thought my bite was off and drilled the crown down. She sent me back to the root specialist, since he had done the root canal and to make sure everything was okay. The dentist had taken her share of x-rays as well as the root specialist. The root specialist determined there was nothing wrong with the tooth he worked on, but thought my bite was still off and ground the crown I had next to the tooth he had worked on.
Well, when I got home I couldn’t tolerate chewing or drink anything hot without my tooth he had ground zinging from my cheek all the way to my ear. Tylenol nor Motrin helped. I tried a warm pack which made my lips and cheek feel tingly. What was going on? The next day, I couldn’t eat or drink anything cold without the zinging across my face. I called my dentist and came in for an appt. She took another set of x-rays. She explained about the nerve roots start to disappear and die as we get older. Who knew?
So, I was sent back to the root specialist again. He took another set of x-rays. By this time, I’m thinking with all the x-rays I’ve had, I should be glowing. Not only did I need a root canal on the tooth that was ground last time, but my jaw ligament is inflamed. Lovely! He did the root canal. Even though he gave me Novacaine, my jaw ached. By the time I got out of there, my whole cheek hurt, yet my chin was numb. Crazy, right? The root specialist told me to take Motrin every 6 hours to calm the inflammation of the ligament. And I have to come back in 2 weeks to cap the crown with a filling.
I can finally say my pain level has decreased tremendously.
clawingmywayin 