DENTAL NERVE DAMAGE

Hi everyone, I'm off the Ulcerative Colitis forum but I'm here onbehalf of my poor wife.

about a year ago on a visit to her dentist, she underwent what should have been a simple repair of a loose cap on a top front tooth.

In a nutshell, her life has been pure hell ever since.

She is convinced that her dentist (of over 20 years) exerted too much pressure, resulting in nerve damage.

The dentist must have sensed that they couldn't help her and sent her to an endontist who after 3 surgical 'procedures' also drew a blank.

She has since been to a neurologist, and oral surgeon for an injection, had accupuncture, 3 consultations with a psychologist, tried cannabis, all to no avail.

She has been prescribed a plethora of pain killers, (morphine and percoset, oxicodone, etc.) and other drugs which seem to turn her into a zombie but do very little for the pain.

some of these drugs include: Amitriptyline, Carbamazepine, Hydromorphone, Cymbalta, at the moment she has started with a pain management clinic who have put her on Nucynta (which made her mouth even sorer) and is currently (for the past several days) been on 50mg of Lyrica.

 

She takes percoset, morphine and lorazapam nightly to help her get sleep.

 

Nothing seems to provide her with any relief, and is in tears a lot of the time.    She is getting plenty of love and support from her broken hearted family who feel helpless.

Is it possible that ther could be a surgical option that can render the nerve blocked/removed/deadened?

If there is anyone out there on this forum that has prior experience with this dilemma that could give advice or share a similar situation your help would be greatly appreciated.   We're at our wits end.

Thanks cogito, any bit of feedback is most welcome.  This pain is centred right on the front tooth/gum itself.  Strangely enough, the original (repaired) tooth  was extracted evn though they said there was nothing wrong with it.  The pain has migrated to it's neigboring top front tooth.   Which from all known testing, xrays, scans etc, is also apparently healthy.

I believe the 'ablation' injection was carried out six months ago by a dental surgeon although I'm not 100% sure they called it an 'ablation'.   We figured it was just a (mega) freezing injection.   Unfortunately all that did was numb the rest of her mouth but still left the pain isolated.   How sad is that?

From what I've read, your face is riddled with nerves mainly emanating from the trigeminal nerve centre.   The neurologist pretty well ruled out trigeminal neuralgia though as it has fairly unique symptoms that involve scary electric shock sensations.

Thanks again cogito, I'm beginning to think that my wife has something very unique but I'll keep bumping this thread for more tid-bits.

C'mon folks help us out here!

Thanks mve.  No she didn't have root canal work done, it was just a simple repair of an old cap.

I don't profess to know much about dentistry, but if by having root canal work means actually removing the nerve, you just might be onto something.

It suggests that the nerve can be eliminated, therefore problem solved?

I somehow don't think that this is viable though, or why wouldn't the so-called experts advocate it?

We haven't been near her dentist since the 'incident'.  I emailed them back in March with the concerns and never got the decency of a reply.

I have to guess that any reply might be construed as some admission of guilt.

We haven't given any serious thought regarding litigation, but I'm sure cases like this would be extremely difficult to prove anyways.

I just want my missus back.

Unfortunately there aren't any medical professionals here...We are just other pain patients and giving suggestions/thoughts on what to speak to a Dr. about...

It doesn't sound like she has actually had the Radiofrequency nerve ablation as this is not an "injection" per say...what you describe sounds like she got injected with lidocaine to numb the area....

I would just keep trying to find a Board Certified Neurologist to see what they recommend.

I'm sorry for her pain:(

Had she tried Neurontin (Gabapentin) or Cymbalta before the Lyrica she is on? Those are other nerve pain medications...

And if this is her first one...then hopefully after a few weeks it will really start to make a difference. With nerve pain...there is pretty much no other medication that puts a dent in it like these types of meds do...

So keep us posted on how the Lyrica does....

Betsey, she's had xrays, mri scan and a facial bone scan. They all came out as 'normal'.   Remember the (alleged) offending tooth is not there anymore.  Just the pain, which has now transferred the neighboring tooth.

Wouldn't an abcess be all swollen up and easy to spot and treat, like with antibiotics?

And to draw on your 38 years in the dental field, can a nerve be removed via a root canal procedure without damaging it?

Thanks for your invaluable help. 

I'm so glad that you're finally getting some answers.

Good luck !

Say hi to your wife from mve.

All I can say is >>> ooochy waaaweee waaaweee>>>>     Teeth pain s*c**.....

Good luck with getting her the treament she needs!!!

We need a ((hug)) button option on this thing!

Thanks Beagles, but the neurologist kinda ruled out trigeminal neuralgia after doing a bunch of tests.    I'm not saying that TN definitley is not the problem but TN symptoms generally manifest themselves with quite startling involuntary 'electric shock convulsions'.   My wife doesn't experience this.

Another thing to consider, though I've had many dental problems, the one thing that stuck out to me, was where the offending tooth is.

I had sinus surgery, with repair of a deviated septum about 7 years ago, and they told me there was an outside chance of this happening beforehand, but the top front 4-6 teeth in my mouth went numb. Like they could have pulled then with no anesthetic. Took about 6 months for the nerves to regenerate. Pins and needles for a couple weeks, but then it stopped, and everything felt normal again. Surgery was done through the nostrils, no cuts inside the mouth.

I'm just spitballing, but have you tried an ear, nose, and throat doc? They may have something to add to the party here, as it could be related to one of the sinus cavities, or the nerves leading from it.

The ENT can try to do a sort of nerve block from the sinuses, just a topical anesthetic on a long q-tip kinda jammed into that front sinus cavity, and see if that brings any kind of relief. If it does, then that could give them something to follow up on.

They did a similar procedure to me when they were trying to track down the cause of my migraines.

Hi mackster, I was just curious if they had checked the surrounding teeth, my bro.s mother in law had three root canals in the same tooth, and finally went to a specialist down in LA who found that the tooth next to it had an almost invisible crack all the way through. They repaired that tooth, and she's finally out of pain afte 5 months of agony. Apparently they just did it on Thursday, and she is off pain meds now.