Problem With Nerve / Back Molar

I hope it's OK to post here - I guess you can always ignore this if this
post isn't suitable for the group. I'd appreciate any views on a problem I
have with my back molar. I'll need to give you a fair amount of background.

I'm male, in my early thirties (generally healthy), and had two lower wisdom
teeth and no upper ones. The lower wisdom teeth had come through
perpendicular to the rest of my teeth and were impacting on my back molars.
Despite my dentist's advising me for several years that they should be
removed, I left them until about half a year ago, when I eventually
consented (he referred me to a specialist rather than remove them himself).
With hindsight I would have had them out ten years earlier, but it's too
late now.

The specialist pointed out on the pre-extraction x-ray that I had some decay
on my back molars. He then went ahead. The extraction went quite well. I did
have a swelling like a golf ball for a couple of days on my left hand side
but it then subsided and overall I seemed to recover as quickly as I guess
anyone does. No obvious complications at the time.

Three months later (shortly before my next routine check-up), I had
toothache in my left back molar. It came for a few hours then went away.
Then a week or so later it came on for about 24 hours, then went away. I
went to see the dentist. He had a look and confirmed that both the back
molars needed a filling.

My dentist put in a temporary filling in the problem tooth and for a week
all was fine. He then took it out and put in an amalgam filling.

>From immediately afterwards, I was in bad pain. The pain was severe and
continuous (though dull). At its worst I could hardly think. It didn't
subside even when I took care to rest that side of the mouth completely for
hours on end. My back molar was also slightly elevated. It hurt to bite on
it (so obviously I avoided doing so). The tooth was not sensitive at all to
hot or cold.

The pain was alleviated for a few hours by Ibuprofen or Paracetemol, but I
tried to avoid taking these as much as possible. I also was able to reduce
the pain by holding a cold flannel to my face in a line from my ear to where
the tooth was (and a bit beyond).

I stuck it out for a few days hoping it would go away, but it didn't and
went back to the dentist about a week later. He took it out and put back in
another temporary filling. The pain went.

A week later still I went back again. The dentist said that the decay was
quite deep, but, rather than refer me immediately to a specialist for root
canal, he hoped that it might work to try a white filling. He put one in
(leaving a little bit of the temporary filling as a 'lining') and it did
seem to work - for about a month and a half all was fine. I thought maybe
the amalgam filling had caused problems because of the way it expands
slightly.

However, this weekend the pain came back. On Thursday evening something felt
not quite right (although no pain or significant discomfort). On Friday I
started from being in very mild discomfort in the morning to moderate
discomfort in the afternoon. In the evening I was in considerable discomfort
and could get very little sleep (I didn't take any painkillers).

On Saturday I was in severe discomfort / pain again for most of the day. It
wasn't quite as bad as before as the pain reduced slightly when I rested but
it was pretty much continuous. Suddenly in the afternoon the pain subsided
rapidly and by the evening I was not even in much discomfort. I had a good
night's sleep on Saturday night and have been in no discomfort or pain
today, although the tooth felt very very slightly elevated at times. By
Sunday evening the tooth was not feeling elevated and I was feeling back to
normal (although for some reason - in case it's relevant - I had an
occasional very slight tingling feeling around the muscle / nerve underneath
my chin - not quite where the pain was).

All weekend I have taken care not to bite on it. I have also switched to a
sensitive toothpaste and new toothbrushes.

Unfortunately my regular dentist has suddenly retired so I have to go to a
new one. I don't know what he's like. So I'd be grateful if anyone can offer
any suggestions (maybe what some of the possibilities are or whether you've
come across anything like this before). Is this something I should try to
live with and see if it goes away or do I need to take more immediate
action? I suspect that I might have triggered it by chewing something
relatively hard (e.g. nuts / raw carrots) and that up to now the tooth has
been up to managing with softer foods (e.g. chicken).

Thanks in advance and apologies if this was an inappropriate post.

Sam.


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