Is it normal to have pain after a root canal?!
Question:
Is it normal to have pain after a root canal?
I just had my third root canal done this afternoon. My first and second root canals were walks in the park (no pain during procedure or after); however, in this third one he just did, he had a hard time with one of the canals (it was calcified, diseased AND had an extra nerve that we didn't know about until I told him to give me another numbing shot directly inside the tooth). He spent a lot of time on that one canal. Anyway, I got home and felt like mowing the lawn and that's what I did; however, now that the pain medicine is starting to somewhat wear off, I'm experiencing pain (like 4/10 on a scale of 1-10; I just took ibuprofen 10 minutes ago and it's already feeling a little better). This is the first time I've experienced pain after one of my root canals. Is this because it was a somewhat difficult case this time?
Additional Details2 months ago
When I said, "...now that the pain medicine is starting to wear off...", I mean to say "numbing medicine".
2 months ago
Sounds like this was just one of those more difficult root canals. It took twice as long as the other two, which were painless during and after.
2 months ago
Did I do too much by mowing my lawn (with a push mower) after I got home, instead of resting? Do you think that could have brought on a little more pain than usual?
2 months ago
Update 5.10.07, 7:00 p.m.:
About 30 minutes or so after I wrote the original question yesterday, my pain disappeared completely thanks to ibuprofen and hasn't bothered me at all since. Thanks for your answers, though. :-)
Answers:
Yes. Your tooth and mouth is traumatized from the root canals. It's not uncommon at all to be in some level of pain after a case like yours. If Ibuprofen isn't helping, call your dentist. He or she can prescribe better pain killers if it's that bad. It's all downhill from here though. You should be better in a few days.
My two front teeth were a walk in the park. One root in each tooth, as expected, and no other complications. One of my back molars however was a case similar to yours and I was uncomfortable for a few days.