Toothache after root canal cleaning: normal reaction or alarming signal

Some patients ask whether pain may appear after cleaning the canal. The concerns are understandable - since the canal has been cleaned, there is no nerve in the tooth. Theoretically, he should not get sick and react to external stimuli. How are things going in practice? Let's look at this issue later in the article.

What is the canal cleaning procedure?

Before moving on to the issue of pain, let’s define what the root canal cleaning procedure itself is. Typically, such surgery is performed because the root is severely damaged. There are two reasons - inflammation or the development of infection.

Most often, root cleaning is performed in patients whom doctors have diagnosed with pulpitis or periodontitis. Cleaning and filling in such a situation are necessary in order to stop the destruction processes and save the tooth. The only alternative is deletion.

During the cleaning process, the soft tissues of the oral cavity are also affected. And here it is important to understand one of the central features of the procedure. Cleaning is done on already inflamed tissues. Since the inflammatory process usually affects large areas and spreads quickly, it will continue to occur for some time. Then the state will fade and stabilize. This usually takes several days.

Due to residual inflammation, the tooth may actually hurt for some time - this is normal. At the same time, the pain itself has a dull, aching character. It is not strong and most patients do not even have to take analgesics. Usually the discomfort intensifies slightly as the evening approaches.

If the patient’s body is in normal condition and nothing affects its regenerative abilities, after two or three unpleasant sensations begin to subside. The feeling of discomfort lasts longer, especially if the operation was traumatic or you have a complex root structure.

You will have to put up with pain much longer if, for some reason, you put off visiting the dentist until the last minute. In this case, the inflammation will become more and more severe, covering large spaces. Also, the rehabilitation process is extended if the patient has any systemic diseases of the body.

How to reduce the risk of pain?

Simple measures will help reduce discomfort after cleaning and unsealing:

• give up too hot, cold, spicy, sour and sweet foods - they will irritate inflamed or damaged tissues,
• clean the affected area of ​​the jaw more carefully, try not to chew hard food with it - any mechanical impact can slow down recovery and increase pain,
• Try to eat right and get enough rest - this will speed up recovery.

If the treatment was carried out correctly, the discomfort should disappear after a few days.

What to do if your tooth hurts after root canal cleaning

So when should you start worrying if your tooth hurts after root canal cleaning? The first reason to sound the alarm will be prolonged and severe pain. This gives reason to think that for some reason complications began to develop.

There are several key warning signs that should make you see a doctor:

• The pain does not go away for a long time.
• Instead of calming down, there is a constant increase in pain.
• Instead of a dull and aching pain, the pain becomes sharp, and a sensation of pulsation appears in the tooth.
• The gums become very swollen, and significant tissue swelling occurs.
• The temperature rises and the patient's general condition becomes worse.

In this case, timely consultation with a doctor becomes the key to maintaining your health. This also allows you to prevent the removal of a tooth for which the dentist cleaned the canals.

Can a tooth hurt after nerve removal?

A tooth from which the nerve has been removed is called “dead.” According to logic, a tooth without a nerve cannot hurt. But tissues need time to recover after endodontic treatment. Therefore, reactive pain after dental treatment can normally persist for several days. Over time, it weakens and goes away on its own. Painful sensations usually occur when pressure is applied or while eating - they can last 1-3 days

,
a week maximum
.

The picture is completely different when the pain increases, becomes throbbing, the gums are swollen, red, swollen, and symptoms of intoxication appear - headache, fever, weakness. Such symptoms indicate the development of complications and require immediate attention to the dentist. The doctor will determine why the dead tooth hurts and provide effective treatment.

Reasons for the development of complications

The very cause of severe pain in the case of each patient must be considered separately. Among the most common sources of such pathology may be the following:

• Incorrectly chosen treatment method, gross mistakes made.
• The channel was not cleaned correctly.
• The doctor left foreign objects inside the canal, did not clean out the tooth fragment, and broke the instrument.
• The patient had a sudden allergic reaction to anesthesia or root canal filling agents, or various medications taken during treatment.
• The filling was placed poorly.
• Severe periodontitis developed and gum damage began.
• The canal walls were perforated during the cleaning process.
• The root of the tooth has received any damage.

Against the background of all of the above, the inflammatory process can actively develop. It becomes the cause of severe pain experienced by the patient.

Causes of the problem

Why does a tooth hurt when pressed after treatment and root canal filling: often, this is an indicator of complications arising due to a medical error. The first place among these is taken by the exit of the composite beyond the root of the “repaired” tooth. This phenomenon can be diagnosed only after studying an x-ray or based on data from a visiograph on a computer.

If the composite ends up outside the root, the tooth may ache after canal cleaning for a very long time - up to 5-6 months from the date of the corresponding manipulations. This figure can fluctuate - it all depends on how far the filling extended into the surrounding soft tissue, what material was installed, as well as the reactivity of the patient’s body (the filling is a foreign body to which the immune system can “respond”).

If there are indications (for the discharge of exudate, decay products) after treatment, the dentist may leave the canals open - in this case, before eating, you should block the holes with a cotton swab

Fortunately, in modern dentistry, when cements are no longer common filling materials, such a problem as the filling going beyond the root apex extremely rarely occurs after root canal treatment. Now dentists use gutta-percha points and the Termafil system to fill dental canals and their branches.

If it hurts for a patient to chew after treatment, there is no point in waiting for “events to develop” - it is better to go for a consultation with another doctor as soon as possible, who will carry out the appropriate manipulations (in other words, redo someone else’s work) more efficiently. Other causes of pain after canal cleaning include improper installation of filling material.

True, if in the previous situation the pain syndrome occurs almost immediately, in this case the tooth can be “silent” for a long time. But nevertheless, after a few weeks the problem will clearly “declare” itself with intense pain. The patient should immediately seek help from a dentist, remove the old filling, treat the tooth - the pain will go away, and the risk of secondary infections in the canals with a transition to the peri-root zone will be reduced.

The “repaired” lesion may hurt due to the breakage of an instrument in the tooth canal. Pain syndrome in this case occurs immediately after the manipulations performed or after a short period of time. The appearance of unpleasant sensations is due to the fact that a fragment of the endoscopic instrument does not allow the doctor to reach the apex of the tooth root and completely remove the nerve. There, moreover, an “unwashed” infection remains, which, in turn, will lead to other dental complications in the near future (for example, gum inflammation may occur).

Why does tool breakage occur when working with channels:

Tooth pain after nerve removal

• the physician places excessive pressure on the acute device;
• the operating rules of the relevant equipment are not followed;
• the dentist does not use special gel lubricants that prevent instruments from “jamming” in the dental canal;
• needles designed to widen holes (files, reamers) are used repeatedly. These devices, as a rule, undergo multi-stage processing and simply become unusable.

Important! To avoid post-filling complications, the dentist can carefully remove a fragment of the endoscopic instrument during the procedure.

This can be done in several ways: currently, the most commonly used method is ultrasonic “knocking out” the fragment; another option is to pass a channel next to a piece of the stuck instrument, expand it, wash it, grab it, and then remove it.

Breaking off part of an instrument when cleaning a canal is a common medical mistake that even experienced dentists make.

Important! If it is impossible to remove the stuck fragment using the described methods, conservative surgical methods are used. So, a cement filling is placed in the passed part of the canal, and the area where the instrument remains is simply cut down (resected).

Perforation of the tooth root is a fairly common explanation for why a tooth begins to hurt severely after treatment. Unfortunately, medical statistics are disappointing - every year more and more patients in dental clinics are faced with a similar problem. This is due to the fact that more and more doctors are switching from manual treatment techniques to machine ones - instead of the usual intracanal instruments, endodontic tips are used (they trigger the rotation of the working part of the device under the control of a special device).

If there is a lack of experience in working with such structures, the dentist may allow the rapidly rotating tip to become jammed or the canal to pass through roughly, resulting in perforation of the root (in other words, a hole) of the tooth. It is noteworthy that if the instrument is selected incorrectly, it can come out through the canal wall and injure the soft tissues (gums) surrounding the tooth.

Painkillers and anti-inflammatory drugs help cope with pain in the tooth after removing the nerve and cleaning the pulp. If perforation occurs after initial cleaning of the canal and manual removal of the nerve, the patient experiences not only pain, but also bleeding from the affected area. If such a complication of treatment is ignored, then the patient will subsequently face severe chronic pain in the “repaired” tooth (the pain syndrome will persist for at least 2–3 weeks).

To cope with the problem that has arisen, the dentist must carefully treat all the canals of the tooth, remove any remaining pulp and infection from them, without affecting the false passage in the tooth root. The perforation is covered with calcium-containing material. An allergic reaction to filling material also results in pain and other unpleasant consequences of treatment.

So, in addition to pain, the patient is faced with the following manifestations:

• swelling of the gums;
• swelling of the cheeks, lips;
• redness, itching of the soft tissues surrounding the tooth.

Local swelling does not go away within several weeks, pain in the tooth intensifies with pressure, and therefore the person cannot chew fully. The only way to ensure that the swollen area no longer hurts is to contact your dentist to replace the filling material with a non-allergenic one.

What to do if your tooth hurts after root canal cleaning

There can be many answers to the question of why a tooth hurts after root canal cleaning. For this reason, it is very important to pay attention to the characteristics of the individual patient’s body.

If you notice the first signs of the inflammatory process described in this material, you should consult a doctor as soon as possible.

The dentist carries out several basic actions:

• Collecting an anamnesis, taking into account the characteristics of the patient’s condition, the nature of the pain, medications taken, and personal characteristics of the body.
• X-ray of the affected tooth, examination of the condition of the gums, canals, assessment of the quality of the work performed.
• Opening the seal, re-cleaning, using disinfectants.
• Prescribing the patient a course of anti-inflammatory drugs and other medications.

Timely actions help to significantly reduce potential harm to the human body and ensure that the tooth can be saved.

How to prevent pain and complications

Regardless of the field of medicine, doctors agree with a simple statement - it is much easier to prevent complications from developing at all than to treat them. There are a few simple recommendations that you should follow:

• Pay close attention to who is performing the operation on you. In our clinic, the task is performed by experienced surgeons who are well aware of all the features of the process. This ensures that mistakes are eliminated - the canal is filled correctly, and there are no fragments or dental instruments left inside.
• If you have previously had an allergy to any analgesics or anti-inflammatory drugs, tell your doctor.
• Don't put off visiting your doctor. The longer you leave a tooth untreated, the greater the risk of numerous potential complications.
• Ask how long the tooth hurts after root canal cleaning in your specific case. The doctor can make a prognosis based on information about the health status of a particular patient.

Also remember that if after cleaning the canals you have any signs of inflammation, you need to see a doctor as soon as possible. It is strictly forbidden to use self-medication, drugs without recommendation, or folk remedies. All this can only make the situation worse.

Symptoms of needing root canals

If you experience prolonged pain from cold or hot water, lasting several minutes, you should suspect inflammation of the nerve in the tooth. The pain can increase gradually, occur after a filling is placed, or with severe tooth decay due to a cold, decreased immunity, stress, or hypothermia. If pain occurs when food hits a certain tooth, when you press on it or tap it with a spoon, then you can assume inflammation of the apical tissues around the root - periodontitis. Cleaning the canals, treating them with medication and filling them is necessary to prevent the spread of inflammation to neighboring areas. In severe cases, complications such as periostitis, osteomyelitis, abscess or phlegmon develop, the latter is treated in a hospital. If the nerve or gangrenous tissue from a tooth is not removed in time, the risk of losing the tooth itself increases over time.

Contact us for the right treatment

Our clinic employs dentists with extensive experience. They perform high-quality cleaning of dental canals and carefully ensure that the person does not experience any complications. We will also give all the necessary advice regarding the course of the recovery process, and recommend the necessary means to reduce pain and relieve inflammation.

We offer our customers competitive prices and special discounts. To get your first appointment and get professional advice, call the numbers listed on the website or leave a request.

A root canal “kills” the tooth.

Wrong. During root canal treatment, the inside of the tooth is cleaned and disinfected, which helps heal it; it does not kill the tooth. The nerves and blood vessels located in the pulp chamber serve to develop the tooth if it is a child or teenager.

The function of the nerves is to signal pain when something is wrong with the tooth, be it decay, infection, inflammation or injury. Pain, therefore, is a defense mechanism that encourages a person to look for its cause and eliminate it.