Infection After Root Canal

Updated on August 10, 2011
R.P. asks from Saint Paul, MN
11 answers

Doctor did root canal for my husband on one of the lower front tooth. After 1 year later doctor still thinks that the infection is still there so she recommended him to see Endo-dontist in Woodbury. So we visited one she referred us and doctor told my husband that he has infection and when he compared with 1year back x-ray found it is four times bigger than before. So recommended him to do surgery to remove infection out.

Does any one have similar experience. My husband is kind of worried because doctor did mention that sometimes during surgery there might be a chance where he can cut the nerve that goes to other tooth.

1 mom found this helpful

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So What Happened?

Thank you all for the courage and advices.My husband did go through surgery. Doctor told the infection was there. His surgery lasted for Onehour and thirth minutes. That day he had cold icecream and soup. Next day was better and there was swelling due to the procedure.He needed to take pain killers for few days due to the suture. He was given antibiotic(amoxicillin) to prevent any infection.His suture removed after week and doctor took his X-ray. Everythig looks good, per Doctor healing is started. Asked him to visit after six month. Doctor was really nice at one point due to my husband concern he came to the clinic during weekend to make sure everything looks fine.

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K.W.

answers from Seattle on

Look for someone who uses ozone to sterilize the root canals. It can help reduce complications. Good luck!

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T.W.

answers from Syracuse on

Sorry he's going through this, I went through this and found it to be very painful...the infection, not the procedure. It's very important for him to see the endodontist and get it taken care of ASAP...the alternative is to lose the tooth which you DO NOT want.

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C.L.

answers from Minneapolis on

I was not in that exact situation, but I did have to have multiple root canals from a serious infection. Your husband probably needs to have the surgery and the sooner the better because those infections can turn very severe very quickly, but if he wants a 2nd opinion I was very happy with my endodontist. I saw Dr. Scott Doyle at Metropolitan Endodontics. They have locations in IGH, Burnsville, Eden Prairie and Northfield. Dr. Doyle was actually one of the younger, presumably less experienced doctors at the clinic, but he did a great job and it was much less unpleasant than I was expecting. I also had to see him on a Saturday in an emergency situation. My dentist said my infection was the 2nd worst one he's seen in 30 years of dentistry. The only one that was worse required hospitalization. Good luck to your husband.

1 mom found this helpful

A.M.

answers from San Antonio on

Infections are very common after dental surgery. Healing requires a healthy immune system even if they do another surgery. I would recommend starting the day with water and the juice of one lemon to cleanse the system before eating, juicing fresh vegetables, cutting out sugar which feeds bacteria in the body, abstaining from vices which are toxic to the body like alcohol, coffee, smoking, etc. I had my wisdom teeth out and I drank fresh vegetable juiced for a week after. It was very helpful. I also do that when I want to cleanse my body. You can look into it more as different vegetables have different properties. Also, gums are very porous. You can rinse your mouth out with a dropperful of alcohol-free goldenseal and then swallow. Goldenseal destroys bacteria better than antibiotics with respect to mouth problems. You can also open a capsule of vitamin E and rub the oil on the affected gums. Clove oil can also be helpful.

1 mom found this helpful
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S.W.

answers from Amarillo on

He needs to go and have it taken care of. I had a root canal last year and have long roots which makes for fun getting to the bottom of the tooth. There was one spot that didn't get taken care of and I wound up with an infection which went into the sinus cavity cavity did not swell outward but was there. You can get symptoms like a cold or cough and a fever with the pain. The dentist went through the crown and felt a like pop which was the core that had formed over the canal and the pressure was releasesd. No more pain but on antibiotics for a good month. He showed me the picutre of where the infection was and how much it had gone down.

Besides the infection in the tooth the infection can/could go to other places in the body and cause a real problem.

Get to the dentist, surgeon or whomever and get it done quickly.

The other S.

1 mom found this helpful
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J.A.

answers from Spartanburg on

I had a root canal done as a child, 10 yrs later I had an infection that required surgery...I went with the endodontist recommended by my dentist. It wasn't a huge ordeal but I did miss class for a couple of days and took the full perscription of painkiller they gave me. I would say the original root canal was more involved but that may be childhood perspective. I had 4 wisdom teeth removed a few years later and had less healing time and discomfort with the infection surgery than removing those.

1 mom found this helpful
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M.C.

answers from Washington DC on

He needs to have the surgery. An infection like that can lead to other serious health issues.

1 mom found this helpful
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M.M.

answers from Lake Charles on

Cutting a nerve to the tooth just means the tooth dies and you can't feel it... do you have any reason to want to feel your teeth? As long as he's getting checkups at the dentist then it's not really going to matter. Now if he let the infection go it can spread to other teeth and then if it doesn't get better you're looking at root canals for others too which is not fun.

1 mom found this helpful
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D.P.

answers from Pittsburgh on

This is kind of like a re-root canal procedure. They missed some of the tissue that they should have got out the first time.
What's the alternative? Pulling the tooth? I'd go to the endodontist. It happens.

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J.F.

answers from Omaha on

I had this happen (not losing the nerve to another tooth)--they call it a "retreat." My endo was fantastic and initially opened up the tooth and packed it with antibiotics and put me on penicillin for a week. Then I came back, he cleaned out the infection, put on a new crown and 5 years later I'm doing better than I was after the initial root canal.

They always paint the worse-case scenario, but typically those things are rare.

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S.H.

answers from Jacksonville on

Had a root canal done on a lower back tooth, still had a lot of pain so I had another root canal. Still had pain so I was sent to a specialist to have a procedure to have the gum cut and pulled back to make sure there was not a hairline crack (there wasn't and I had to pay out of pocket for that surgery). After a few more years of pain in that lower tooth the infection was worsening and I ended up having to have the tooth pulled last year.

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