Pain and swelling on the face after root canal, had it done by a dental student?!
Question: ive had a root canal done on tooth #6 on wed. it is sat now and i have really bad pain on my gums around that tooth, on my right side jaw, my right side of the face is swollen, i cant bite on right side, and ive been taken antibiotics and some painkiller but NOTHING is helping. its been done by a student dentist who is graduating this year. when he was doin the root canal, i have to be honest it didnt look like he knew what he was doin. two main docs had to help him out througout the whole thing. i singed a paper sayin that i allow a student doin my root canal but im just wondering if my problem gets worse if i could get them to reamberse me or someone told me i could sue them? help me out here please. as this is my 1st root canal i dont know what i am to expect. and the reason i let a student work on me is because i payed half of what a regular dentist told me. what im goin thru is it normal? or should i hurry myself to the dentist????????
Answers: ive had a root canal done on tooth #6 on wed. it is sat now and i have really bad pain on my gums around that tooth, on my right side jaw, my right side of the face is swollen, i cant bite on right side, and ive been taken antibiotics and some painkiller but NOTHING is helping. its been done by a student dentist who is graduating this year. when he was doin the root canal, i have to be honest it didnt look like he knew what he was doin. two main docs had to help him out througout the whole thing. i singed a paper sayin that i allow a student doin my root canal but im just wondering if my problem gets worse if i could get them to reamberse me or someone told me i could sue them? help me out here please. as this is my 1st root canal i dont know what i am to expect. and the reason i let a student work on me is because i payed half of what a regular dentist told me. what im goin thru is it normal? or should i hurry myself to the dentist????????
I say heck yeah sue if thats what you want.. these people are aganist it.. well this is your teeth.. not theirs.. :)
Why is everyone so quick to want to sue people, it's unreal. Pain and swelling is normal, I highly doubt it has anything to do with a student doing the surgery. He was supervised and has had the training, it has only been a few days. Take some anti-inflammatories and some pain killers and rest your mouth. If it doesn't get better in the next couple of days contact your dentist for advice.
Residual pain is normal for a few days following a root canal but unfortunately swelling is not. You should call the school and student as soon as possible to assess if you need stronger antibiotics or if you need to come in to have the root canal re-opened and re-treated. Unfortunately, everyone has to learn and the student may have missed some nerve tissue I'm sure they will bring you in as soon as possible to fix and the student will probably feel terrible for causing you pain. Try to understand that they are still learning. I know it sucks, I've been in a similar situation. Also, I doubt you can sue, the school has lawyers draw up their consent forms and I'm sure it stated all the possible problems with a root canal. Good luck and I hope they get you out of pain ASAP!
The swelling definatly isn't normal, but it does happen. You should get checked out asap. Some of the infected tissue may have remained in the tooth.
Don't try and sue. First of all you knew going into this that you were getting work done by a student and second a dentist with 30 years of experience could have gotten these results. It just sometimes happens. At best you should get the root canal fixed at no chrage.
by the way did they finish the root canal? Sometimes they do root canals in 2 steps. If this is your case it's even more common to have swelling if they just did the first step and haven't finished the second.
Pain is one thing, but swelling usually indicates infection. At the very least, swelling cuts off blood flow & can thereby cause tissue damage, or even death... It's ussually what causes a tooth to die. You might want to have a known, reputable dentist advise you on this, after looking at it, & he might (or might not) want to have an exray. I've never had either pain or swelling after a root canal, & I've had 6 of them. (My dentist happens to be one of the best, as he's also an oral surgeon.) Or, you can try to get back in to see someone where your RC was done. Make CLEAR how swollen & painful you are!
I'm not sure which tooth #6 is, but I know that the molars are much more difficult to do a root canal on, as the roots are divided, angled, & deeper. Some people also have deeper roots (like my husband, who found out the day of his root canal that ordinary novacain doesn't work for him! ouch!!! They gave him extra, but it still didn't numb him.). My dentist says that he needs to ask for 'fast-acting' novacaine (I think that's what he called it). Some dentists just know more --or, keep up with the latest improvements better-- than others.
But, if not all the root was gotten out, this sounds *to me* like Trouble! Sometimes a root is missed because of it being at an odd angle, or there's more than what was expected. Also, if after root removal it wasn't properly sterilized, or if the seal was not done properly, or forgotten. In time, leaks often occur because of cracks in the filling material used, even gutta-percha. (This can cause health problems in other areas of the body.)
I suggest reading the following:
<1st Root Canal - Tooth Pain and Other Symptoms Of Endodontic Disease> *< put that in URL box; hit 'Go';
scroll down to:
" Why May Endodontic Disease Cause Swelling?"
Endodontic therapy > Root Canal Treatment > Failure http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Root-canal_...
<Will there be any pain or discomfort after the root canal treatment?> (put it in URL box; hit 'Go'; scroll down to it)