Are They Misdiagnosing a Dental Emergency?

I broke a front tooth while on vacation about three years ago. I saw an emergency dentist who did a root canal treatment on the tooth. He did the filling part and said my dentist could do the crown when I returned home from vacation. When I did get home, my dentist removed the filling just to check out the work and said that everything looked fine. He replaced the filling and then provided me with the dental crown. Everything was fine for two years. Now, I’m living in a new state and the tooth starts hurting again out of nowhere. It became sensitive to hot and cold. I went to see my new dentist. He said that he didn’t see anything wrong and nothing showed up on the x-ray either, but did send me to a root canal specialist. That dentist didn’t see a problem with the crowned tooth but thought the problem was coming from the tooth next to the one that is crowned. There was nothing wrong with this tooth up until now so I’m not sure why it would be the problem. Are they overlooking a dental emergency with the tooth that is already crowned?

Amelia


Dear Amelia,

Man holding his jaw in pain

If the root canal treatment was done on your front tooth, then there will be no pain from that area. You had two dentists verify the root canal was done. When it is a back tooth, there can be some hidden canals that can be overlooked, but you are dealing with a front tooth so there would be nothing odd or challenging about that case.

Because of the extent of damage your tooth received, I would be shocked if the adjacent teeth did not also incur some trauma at the same time. It is fairly common for a tooth that underwent trauma to not show any signs of a problem until a few years down the line. When the pulp of a tooth is inflamed, it will not show up on an x-ray. That will only become a visible problem after the tooth develops an infection that starts to leech out into the bone.

If the tooth is no longer hurting, then it is not a dental emergency and you can leave it alone. Then, make sure you do an x-ray at least once a year. If anything changes, such as it develops pain again or something shows up on the x-ray, then you will know it is time to get treatment for the adjacent tooth. It will be a simple matter of having another root canal treatment and crown done.

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