I had my root canal completed on June 24th. All went fine but I am starting to have some discomfort in the treated tooth again. Well, not IN the tooth, but on the top, the front and back edges.

I tend to fidget with the tooth, poke it with my tongue and so on. I'm 21 and it was my very first experience with a cavity, ever! So, I'm not used to the way the filling feels so I tend to fidget.

I also had bronchitis last week and was on Zithromax for that.

I noticed that I tend to clench my jaw when I sleep and sort of suck on that tooth area where the treated tooth is.

The discomfort I notice mainly at night, closer to bed time, around 9 or 10pm. Is it possible that the discomfort is caused my me putting stress on the already stressed tooth from the major RC work and it is taking longer to heal or should I be more concerned?

Anyone else have an experience like this? :confused:

Recovery from root canals is often kind of a slow, uneven process. "Fidgeting" with the tooth certainly doesn't help, but I am not sure that it would make much difference either. You mentioned clenching your jaw when you sleep; do you think that you might be grinding your teeth? THAT can (and almost certainly will) cause problems. Does the tooth just have a filling, or a crown? Maybe the bite needs to be adjusted? At any rate, if you're only experiencing "discomfort," as opposed to the wretched pain of a bonafide toothache, then you probably have nothing to lose by being patient and waiting it out to see if it gradually disappears. (Isn't it odd, though, when you've got some kind of tooth problem, it always seems to bother you the most at night? I wonder if that's because our bodies have less resistance or less tolerance to pain at the end of the day when we're tired.) Of course, if you're worried about it, or it gets worse, you can always go back to your dentist . . . but then, you didn't need me to tell you that much, did you? Anyway, good luck . . . I know myself that root canal problems are a real pain in more ways than one.

Thanks for your reply. I am quite certain that I do sometimes grind my teeth at night. The tooth feels totally fine today, no discomfort at all. I am going back to my dentist for a cleaning on Aug. 16th and then we are going to discuss getting the crown done for the tooth.
Thanks again! :)