| dental horror story ... atypical odontalgia
Does anyone have any info on atypical odontalgia? I had an abcess on my tooth (upper right molar) back in September, and had a root canal and crown fitted. All seemed fine but then the same tooth on the other side of my mouth began to hurt - a horrible burning/pinching pain. To cut a long story short I saw the dentist a total of 14 times, they did - and redid - a root canal on the other tooth but the pain remained and then the first tooth treated started to ache too. FInally I was referred to a specialist who said he didn't think my pain was dental - by this time my whole upper jaw was burning and aching and sort of painfully numb. I have been referred to a maxillio facial surgeon who has diagnosed atypical odontalgia. I have difficulty understanding what this is, but apparently some people are sensitive to root canal and basically the nerves in your face go into great distress when it is done and don't settle down on their own.. its like when people have a leg amputated and still feel pain in the limb. I have been prescribed nortryptyline which has made the acute pain a little better but has left me feeling as though my whole jaw is in spasm. The pressure that it causes against the roof of my mouth is just intolerable - it feels like my face will explode and my teeth feel like someone is trying to pull them out. I am, as I am sure you can imagine, not happy. I would be really keen to get in touch with others who have or have had this to find out how they tackled it as - having had toothache now for five months - I am getting a bit fed up to put it mildly... (ps: I have had an mri scan and my sinuses are fine)
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