A dental x ray question?!
Question: Both of these teeth have had root canals and both have crowns on them. I am presently having my crowns redone. However the tooth on the left is bothering me with heat (not cold, heat only...like a seizing up feeling, not pain), and you can clearly see that something is not quite right on that tooth in the X-ray. This tooth was damaged from a hard fall onto a table years ago and I am wondering if the heat sensation I am having is coming from a crack in the tooth, or if they did not do the root canal properly, or whatever else you think this might be. I certainly do not want to have a new crown placed on it until this problem is fixed. Can you tell me by looking at the X-ray what this "Might" be??? I went to a root canal specialist and he did nothing for me. I am also having my crowns redone and if the root canal does need to be redone is it something they can do through the gum after my crowns are in?
Answers: Both of these teeth have had root canals and both have crowns on them. I am presently having my crowns redone. However the tooth on the left is bothering me with heat (not cold, heat only...like a seizing up feeling, not pain), and you can clearly see that something is not quite right on that tooth in the X-ray. This tooth was damaged from a hard fall onto a table years ago and I am wondering if the heat sensation I am having is coming from a crack in the tooth, or if they did not do the root canal properly, or whatever else you think this might be. I certainly do not want to have a new crown placed on it until this problem is fixed. Can you tell me by looking at the X-ray what this "Might" be??? I went to a root canal specialist and he did nothing for me. I am also having my crowns redone and if the root canal does need to be redone is it something they can do through the gum after my crowns are in?
By looking at this X-ray, I feel there is some shadow at the root tip of #9, which the tooth to your left, the pain you described, along with the shadow on the X-ray, can suggest a low grade chronic infection resulting from root canal failure. This kind of infection or abscess, is of a low intensity, and it doesn't produce a sharp pain or facial swelling, instead it will present with slight discomfort, and very mild symptoms that most patients can tolerate over the years, even without pain killers.
The complexity in your case comes from the fact that the tooth has a post in it, you can see it on the X-ray as the straight thick white line in the middle of the tooth. when a tooth present with such situation, a re-treatment can be very challenging, to retreat that root canal, the dentist need to remove the post in order to access the root tip and refill the root with a new filling, removing a post can involve some risk, including fracturing the root, perforating the tooth etc..., your other option would be a retro-fill, what that means is a surgery, they cut you gum near the tip of your tooth, they clean the tip of the root, and fill it from the back, the post will stay in the tooth untouched, without any risks removing it, and if you have your new crown on, they don't have to damage them.
most of the time, if the tooth present with such situations, and the symptoms are tolerable by the patient, and not causing constant discomfort, the dentist elect to leave the tooth untreated, because treating the tooth might involve more risk than leaving it untreated, and I feel that's the reason your endodontist didn't mention anything about your case.
the symptoms you described, doesn't suggest a crack, as the tooth is not sensitive to biting, and it doesn't suggest a poorly done root canal by your old dentist, failures happen even with the best filling, and best dentist, failure rate of root canals is about 10%, and unfortunately you were one of them.
It's little hard to give accurate evaluation without a clinical exam, I tried to figure things out from X-ray only, so my diagnosis can be completely off.
I do suggest that you go see another dentist for a second opinion, it can clarify a lot of things to you, dentistry is not an exact science, and different dentist can have different opinions, and they all can be right. so a consultation would be on your side.
Good luck
OMG AM NOT SURE ABOUT THIS ONE
Where is the x-ray? I'd say that you should tell this to another dentist and get a second opinion. It could jus be because of the change you are having done.