Usual Treatment Methods of Toothache Patients
There are some patients who develop toothache after dental treatments and for some, the pain that is already there can get worse. In such cases, dentists say that there is nothing wrong with their treatment. As a last resort, the tooth that is causing the pain gets pulled but the pain remains. Then the patient sees another dentist. New treatments, maybe another pull. But the pain keeps on getting worse. Patients are sure that the problem is their teeth but dentists are unable to solve it. Why is that?
Patients are right. The source is really the tooth-jaw complex. Physicians do not consider these patients’ history. No one thinks that those individuals have a more sensitive nervous system than others.
Mostly, those dental treatments are inadequate. Dentists think that there is nothing wrong with their methods because they believe that they are treating an ordinary patient. In many people, these treatments do not cause any pain indeed.
Dentists apply treatments outside their specialty areas and in the case that the pulling is unable to cure the pain—as a result of a narrow perspective- they tend to think that the source was not the tooth.
The Story of a 43-Year-Old Female Patient Who Had Resistant Pain After Getting Implants
This story reveals everything about the pain caused by dental treatments and how dentists misevaluate patient’s problems. 2 years ago, a patient who got 1 upper and 2 lower implants in the places of her missing teeth on the left side, had severe pain after a couple of hours. Her life became a nightmare with the pain remaining there for 2 years but the dentist did not want to take any responsibilities since the operation was fine. After that, she got a root canal treatment on the tooth right next to one of the lower implants (endodontic treatment applied by a maxillofacial surgeon) and finally, the tooth was pulled. Physicians taking it from there applied cortisones, antibiotics and another root canal treatment on an upper tooth (which is also a failure as far as we can see from the x-ray. Not made by an endodontist again). Patient was still in pain.
“I suffer from the same pain for 2 years. It wakes me up in the middle of the night. I take innumerable painkillers, drugs but to no good. I cannot even let my toothbrush to touch my gum there. It tenses, contracts. The pain is so severe that I didn’t even notice the pain of my wisdom tooth that was pulled thinking it might be the cause. It is that severe. I even thought committing suicide but I have kids. Nobody understands me but I can’t take it anymore. Before, it was momentary. Like an electrical shock on my jaw, coming from my left ear. But now, it is even impossible to touch there. Even if my hand slightly contacts my jaw, I get electrified. I was also prescribed with neuralgia drugs but they were only able to decrease the pain. Not to kill.”
If one carefully evaluates this story, he or she can clearly see that she had pain related with trigeminal neuralgia and temporomandibular joint, before getting the implants. Such patients should first get a treatment for their joints, and tooth decay and root canal treatments by a specialist. During the operation, a joint was pushed too hard and when this was added to the negative stimuli coming from the implants, her neuralgia got worse. After the surgery, the delusion of implants were not causing the pain should have been quit and the serious joint problem should have been handled. All dentists treating the patient were professors however they were trying to play outside their own territories. If they had at least referred the patient to an endodontist (root canal treatment specialist), the unnecessary pulling would not have been happened. The implants were technically correct but ironically, they were the trigger. As a result, the patient came to me with implants missing their tops for 2 years, pulled and hence missing teeth, new decays due to severe pain preventing the patient from brushing, and worse joint problems. Let alone the 2 years of suffering…