Question:
Can someone provide some insight??? Last Wednesday (6/16) I had a root
canal on tooth #18. As of today, Sunday (6/20), I still can not chew
on that tooth and it hurts when pressure is applied - even when I
clinch my teeth.
A series of questions;
Is this normal?
How long until I can chew on that tooth?
How long should I wait until I think that there may be a problem?
If the root canal is not successful what will be the symptoms? How
long before I notice these symptoms?
On Friday when I told the Endodontist that there was pain when
pressure was applied he indicated that the pain may be from the
ligaments? Can someone explain this to me - how long does it take
ligaments to heal?
Answer:
This does happen. The instrumentation with irrigating fluids in the
canals certainly can irritate the tissues at the tip of the root (the
bone and periodontal ligament). This can take several days to resolve.
Within about a week it should be diminishing if not completely gone.
If a week passes and it is no better, call the endodontist. As long as
it is diminishing (even if the improvement is slow) it's probably OK.
After standard root canal therapy, a ball of pus (dead bacteria, plus
white blood cells) sometimes remains encapsulated (a thick, fibrous
sac) around the root tip (suggesting the prefix, apico- from the word
apex).
Apicoecotmy - a surgical procedure that involves drilling through the
bone at the level of the root tip and removing that fibrous sac so the
bone can heal.
