Posted 11/15/2014 12:42 AM (GMT 0)
If I'm here seeking advice, it only makes sense to tell the full story although it might be long so whoever takes the time to read this, thank you in advance.
It all started on my 28th birthday. I woke up that morning with the entire left side of my mouth inflamed which left me in pain the entire day. After a few days, the pain shifted to my upper front teeth and eventually after a week, the pain completely subsided so I'm not sure what was going on. It could've been a sinus infection but I don't remember being sick at the time.
Although I have a mouth full of fillings, I've surprisingly never had a toothache before except when an old filling came out but that tooth was only sensitive when food was trapped in the cavity so to have had this nagging constant burning pain in all of my left teeth and gums that came out of nowhere was a surprise to me. Granted at the time, I didn't have the best dental hygiene. I have always brushed my teeth but it wasn't until I was in college that I started to floss. In hindsight, it might have been too late even by then.
The fact that I had just gotten out of an emotionally abusive relationship, prior to the aforementioned teeth pain, which left me suffering with stomach ulcers for an entire year unable to keep food down, didn't exactly help my teeth problems. So because of that, I developed some type of eating/sleeping disorder that caused me to wake up in the middle of the night with the worst hunger cravings so I would snack and then fall right back to sleep because I'd be too exhausted to brush my teeth again. All of that is over and done with now. My stomach and eating habits are back to normal.
However, with all of these issues factored in, I developed cavities throughout my mouth unbeknownst to me at the time. It wasn't until a few months later when I woke up with another toothache that I realized how serious this situation had become. I had a relatively small cavity on my front tooth that I had ignored for several years. I knew I would eventually need to get it filled but seeing how I didn't have a dentist, I put it off. So with this new toothache, it prompted me to finally find one. Up until I was 24, I went to my childhood dentist although I really wasn't supposed to. He was one of the kindest, most gentle physician I've ever met but eventually, he had to recommend I find another dentist and due to the fact that he was so nice and sensitive to my needs (which is rare in today's medical field), I was scared of having to find someone else so I didn't.
After a month of suffering with this constant dull ache on my front tooth, I went in for an evaluation at my new dentist and after taking x-rays, the dentist came back and said I had 12 cavities. I couldn't believe it. I knew I had several obvious ones in my mouth, mostly old fillings that were getting old, but I didn't think my decay had progressed that much. I've always been prone to cavities even as a child but none of them ever left me in pain. So after the dentist filled the front tooth, she advised the decay had spread to the neighboring tooth which she filled as well and said if I had waited any longer, I would've needed a root canal. Although I was devastated about my cavities, I was relieved that the one causing me pain was finally fixed. I knew I'd have to come back to fill the other 10 but at that time, I was just happy to be out of pain. Until the novocaine wore off...and the pain was worse.
I went back to the dentist a week later and she said to give it another week and wrote me a prescription for Vicodin and antibiotics. I had never taken either before in my life. In fact, I wasn't even able to swallow pills and because of this, I had never even taken a vitamin or pain pill either. So for 28 years, I dealt with various body pains on my own and took nothing for pain. I have no idea how I lasted that long without them because now after learning how to swallow, my pain threshold has lowered tremendously and I can't go one day without taking something. So I gave it a week but the pain persisted. I decided to seek out a 2nd opinion elsewhere so I went to a different dentist and he determined that all of my front teeth needed root canals since old fillings were close to the nerve. Um, no. That was not about to happen especially if the other 2 weren't hurting. I went back to my original dentist again and the assistant said sometimes it takes months for the pain to settle down after a filling. They knew I couldn't wait that long so they referred me to an endodontist for further testing. I went there a few days later and after he did the temperature and pressure tests, all of the top teeth gave me the same response. He wasn't sure why. All he said was that the front tooth that was throbbing didn't need a root canal but I could always get one if I wanted (who actually WANTS to get a root canal?). I didn't (and still don't) have dental insurance so I wouldn't have been able to afford one anyway so I gave it a few more months, 7 to be exact, before I was back in the dental office crying in the chair begging my dentist if she can go ahead and finally do the root canal. Prior to the tears, she had referred me out again but I told her I couldn't wait another second. I didn't care how much more debt this was going to get me in. I just wanted to be out of pain once and for all. Knowing how much pain I had suffered with already and how much money I've spent so far in restoring my other teeth, my dentist graciously knocked a couple hundred off the procedure so it wasn't too much of a financial burden. As I was leaving the office, the assistant told me to give it a full 24 hours before the pain goes away. I guess by that point, they were getting impatient with my constant complaints. I can't really blame them. I seem to be a rare case after all.
During those months I waited for the pain to settle, a bottom right wisdom teeth erupted through the surface and the pain from that was sharp and ran along the gumline instead of dull and in one area like the front tooth. That at least lessened the front tooth pain but after a few weeks, it went away which only made the front one hurt again. After the root canal, my pain seemed to lessen a bit but it was still enough to distract me and ruin my day. about a week afterwards, I was back in that dental chair complaining of pain and by this point, the dentist seemed clueless and said it could be neurological then referred me to a neurologist. That had never crossed my mind but I saw one within a few days and after discussing my history with him, he said that although I wasn't displaying the common signs of the facial nerve disorder called Trigeminal Neuralgia, I could very well have it so he put me on this anti-seizure medication called carbamazepine. I had never taken medication for anything before. I had never even been to the doctor for anything aside for a few physicals. Anyway, the neurologist said there is no specific test to determine TN but if the medication helps, then an MRI would have to be ordered to see if I have a compressed nerve in my brain. Well, I went home and researched this drug and from what I read, people said it should help right away so I took the recommended dosage but it didn't seem to help, all it did was make me sleepy. I immediately started crying because Thanksgiving was in a few days and I knew I'd be in pain during the entire break. Also, the fact that the neurologist sent me home with no definite pain relief (such as painkillers), I was even angrier. By this point, I wanted to give up but that would mean letting my teeth go and after having spent thousands of dollars already in fixing my cavities, I knew I couldn't do that.
So after suffering through Thanksgiving and being around family who all were healthy and happy, I went back to my dentist for further review. She still didn't know what was going on and couldn't believe I was still in pain. She referred me to the endodontist again to see if he could figure it out. I went back to him and after x-raying my root canalled tooth, he said everything looks perfect and recommended I proceed with the MRI. I then emailed my childhood dentist to ask his opinion and sent him the x-rays. He also suggested I get an MRI. (sigh) I don't know which answer I hated more: root canal or MRI. Since it was the end of the year, spending all that money on an expensive test wasn't the best idea in terms of my health insurance coverage so I decided to go ahead and schedule an MRI but wanted to wait until the new year. Not sure how I made it through Christmas but I did and surprisingly the pain wasn't too bad by this point. In fact, after New Years, my overall pain seemed to cut in half. For the first time in a year, I felt fine.
Due to my constant pain, I had fallen into depression which caused me to become a hermit. I no longer had a social life and due to the fact that I was in so much debt, I was still depressed even after the throbbing let up. The tooth was still sensitive though but that's manageable compared to that annoying dull ache that plagued me for so long.
Due to my history of depression as a teenager (which was undiagnosed and untreated - it for some reason went away in my early 20s), I refused to let myself get that deep into it again so I started doing all I can to prevent it. I started exercising, becoming more socially active, and looking into herbal remedies for pain which included using an acumat since I still had flare-ups of tooth pain every so often. All of this seemed to help a lot but then one day out of the blue, my upper left molars started hurting. I thought it could be from my wisdom tooth so I got that removed along with the upper right side. While I was at the oral surgeon, I asked him to look at the front tooth. He noticed the high restoration in that area but that doesn't necessarily mean the pain was coming from the tooth so he prescribed an anti-depressant called amitriptyline which is also used for nerve pain. It seemed to help with the throbbing but as for the sensitivity to touch, that was still there. After I healed from wisdom tooth surgery, my molars and the gum area continued to throb for 6 more months. Nothing I did helped. Nothing I took helped. I wasn't about to get another root canal when the first one failed. By this time, my financial debt caught up to me. I was working full time at an insurance office but even that wasn't enough to cover living expenses and all of these dental bills so eventually I had to get a 2nd job. Working one is stressful enough but adding on a 2nd one all while dealing with 2 separate toothaches was enough to drive me crazy. I found several herbs that kept the throbbing at bay but still nothing so far has taken the pain away completely.
A few weeks ago, I went back to my general dentist and she took x-rays and said nothing is wrong with the molars aside from having huge fillings. She tested them both and they gave the same response. She mentioned it could be a sinus infection but I didn't feel sick at all so she asked if I've ever had a childhood injury since there seemed to be scar tissue on the x-ray. I told her no. She didn't know what to do so she recommended a root canal but seeing how neither of us were sure which tooth was the culprit, I was not about to spend thousands of more dollars on a chance that my pain would still be there. As for the front tooth, I asked if she can just pull it but she didn't think that was the best idea so she talked me out of it saying that pulling the tooth would require an implant and the cost of that wouldn't be worth it after all I've spent on the tooth and the work done on it so far. I agreed so she recommended I see another endodontist, one that has more advanced equipment. Not sure why she didn't refer me to him before but anyway, I saw the 2nd endodontist and he determined the front tooth needs to be retreated and the pain coming from the molars might be neurological. Exhaustion set in by this time but I persevered. I called my dentist the next day and explained that to her. She offered to do the 2nd root canal for free. As nice as that sounded, I knew it wouldn't relieve ALL of my teeth pain but I took her up on the offer. The night before the 2nd root canal, in a strange turn of events, the teeth on the opposite side randomly decided to start hurting all the way from the canine to the last molar. So now I had pretty much all of my upper teeth causing me pain not to mention my bottom right wisdom tooth started flaring up again. I was close to losing it but that would only make matters worse. Within a few days, my dentist retreated the front tooth. That was over 3 weeks ago but the tooth still hurts and now the neighboring tooth at the gumline has started hurting (the canine). The pain shifts from my left molars to my left front teeth to my right front teeth.
As for my right wisdom tooth, while I was in the oral surgeon's office last week, I asked him about all of my tooth pain and he recommended I try prescription toothpaste. The next day, I called my dentist and got them to prescribe some. I've been using it every day for the past week but it doesn't seem to alleviate my pain.
Since modern medicine was not helping, I decided to take a different route. I looked into acupuncture which my brother had recommended months ago but I was scared of needles and wasn't open to the idea. By this point however, I was willing to try anything so I scheduled an appointment with an acupuncturist. After an hour of having my ears and hands being stuck with needles (which are the focal points for teeth pain), my teeth felt the same. No such luck there. Ugh.
And that brings me to right now. I don't know what to do. I am in constant pain all day to the point where I am having to quit my 2nd job because I am literally going out of my mind. Throughout the course of the past 2 years, I've been evaluated by 3 general dentists, 2 endodontists, a neurologist, an oral surgeon, and an acupuncturist. I have spent over $5000 trying to solve this problem. This doesn't even include the gas I used driving back and forth to all of these physicians and wages lost by taking days off of work to be able to go.
I have been taking very good care of my teeth since the original toothache that started on my 28th birthday but my situation only seems to be getting worse. The strange thing is my teeth look fine. My family and friends can't even believe I'm having so much problems because when I smile, you wouldn't think this is happening to me but every day I wake up, the pain immediately starts then does it's usual shifting from tooth to tooth with nothing to relieve it. I've tried so many herbs and vitamins and nothing helps. Even painkillers barely help now.
Something just doesn't make sense. It's not like I eat or drink loads of sugar but even the days I do, I always brush my teeth 30 minutes afterwards. I'm doing everything right including rinsing in coconut oil twice a day for the past year but still no relief.
I have fought for so long trying not to let this control my life but I'm afraid it has already done so. I love life so much but I can't enjoy it when I'm hurting so much. My quality of life has diminished drastically the past 2 years but no one understands or seems to truly care, not even my physicians.
With all of this said, whoever has taken the time to read all of my words and has any idea what is going on, PLEASE help me. Believe it or not, this is the short version and I could write more but I'm at work as I type and keep getting interrupted. I certainly appreciate you reading this but would be even more grateful if someone has any suggestions as to what is causing my pain.