Hi all,

I had an apicoectomy on my tooth front teeth 7 weeks ago. It was sore at first, but the pain that I had in the one tooth before the surgery was gone. I had a check up two weeks after surgery. I told the oral surgeon it was still a bit sore but he said that was normal due to the size of the infection plus bone grafting, etc.

Two weeks ago it started to hurt - the exact pain I had BEFORE the surgery. Its hard to explain, sometimes it feels like a burn and other times a dull throb, and sometimes it almost feels like a twitching feeling. I have temporary caps on all six of my front teeth right now.

I have always had problems with my gums, and my gums look very red and puffy now around my front tooth that is hurting.

I am worried the apico surgery didn't "work". How can they tell?

Maybe my temp cap is kinda loose?

I see the oral surgeon on Monday but I am worried. This cost me $3200 and I guess the next step is to pull the tooth? If that happens what happens next? Can they make a bridge if my top six teeth are already temp caps? There are three connected on the right and three connected on the left. Hope that makes sense.

I am worried if the tooth gets pulled what goes in its place?

If someone can help me with any info I would appreciate it. I can't even sleep worrying about this.

Thanks!
Carrie

Hi - no one has respnded but I thought I would give an update. I saw the oral surgeon on Monday, he took an xray and said everything looked fine. I am taking antibiotics and he gave me another week if the pain persisted. The pain has almost diminished since I started the antibiotics last week.

He said that sometimes with this procedure (apico), about 2-3 months after the patient will experience a flare-up of pain again. He said due to the bone graft, there is a lot of cellular activity, etc. He was very nice and I do like him, but I am nervous.

I asked him if it still continued to hurt, what then? Do we extract? He seemed very leery of extracting this tooth. It's #8. He said he would recommend a second apico surgery to remove more of the root before he would want to extract it.

Just some background, all 6 of my front teeth have temp caps on them now. They originally were a 6-tooth bridge, which is what caused these problems. Now its into two temp bridges, 3 on each side with a split between my front teeth. My regular dentist did this.

Any advice, ideas?

Thanks!
Carrie