posted
After a search for "dental problems", I've spent a long time reading. Feeling confused & it's hard to concentrate tonight. Still not sure what the problem is.
Brief history - Lyme disease for many years with treatment off & on the last 10 years. Treated for Babesiosis & Bartonella several years ago. Was off abx for 2 yrs, but in May started Biaxin & Plaquenil.
Thurs of last week, had to have a tooth pulled (lower at the back). Took 4 or 5 shots to deaden the area. Extraction was not real easy.
Used pain pills for first day, then 2 aspirin every 4-6 hours for 2 days, then 1 aspirin every 4-6 hours since then. This is the 6th day - not seeing much improvement.
Would appreciate any opinions & suggestions!
Pain is not centered around extraction, & if it were a dry socket, 1 aspirin probably wouldn't come close to easing the pain.
It's an aching type of pain in the joint (trigeminal nerve?), under the jaw, & in the gums on that side of my mouth.
Tongue & inside of both cheeks feel inflammed & slightly swollen. Top of mouth & upper throat are sore & inflammed. Swallowing not affected.
Questions - Could it be "trigeminal neuralgia" caused by Lyme or Babesiosis?
How would I know if it's problems with root canals done 16 yrs ago?
Do cavitations show up on regular x-rays done in the dentist office? Mine were clear last month.
Could this be a herx triggered by extraction? Had mountains of responsibility the last month (including 2 rather large meetings in my home) & worried a lot about tooth extraction. Could the stress be part of the problem?
It's as if the tooth extraction pushed me over the edge & also stirred up the spirochetes. Maybe they want to retaliate!!
Will see the dentist tomorrow. Any suggestions? Would greatly appreciate your thoughts on the matter.
Posts: 4638 | From South Carolina | Registered: Mar 2001
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quote:Originally posted by cbb: Questions - Could it be "trigeminal neuralgia" caused by Lyme or Babesiosis?
How would I know if it's problems with root canals done 16 yrs ago?
Do cavitations show up on regular x-rays done in the dentist office? Mine were clear last month.
1. Could be, but I think that's severe nerve pain....Is that what you're having? 2. I don't think you would know. 3. I don't think so.
Take it easy. I had two crowns done several years ago and it took nearly 6 wks before the pain would go away. [two different crowns...several months apart...it took 6 wks for each one]
I would think that for Lymies, it takes longer to heal, plus we DO stir up keets when we have surgeries.
Your dentist won't have many answers for you. That's why you came HERE, right!!??
Hope it lets up soon!
-------------------- --Lymetutu-- Opinions, not medical advice! Posts: 96239 | From Texas | Registered: Feb 2001
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JillF
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 5553
posted
I had severe pain after getting my wisdom teeth pulled
No amount of pain killers would help
Went in to see the dentist over this said there was no problem and that I shouldn't be in pain
This was awhile back - way before I knew I had Lyme
Took several weeks for the pain to go away. Sleeping with a heating pad on my pillow helped the most
I had a crown put in over a year ago and that still hurts on and off. Dentist says there should be no problem. Other teeth hurt, also, but this tooth is the most painful. It starts to hurt out of the blue and then goes away. No idea...
Posts: 1485 | From USA | Registered: Apr 2004
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lymeloco
Unregistered
posted
I've had throbbing pain when I went one night without a nightguard. I'm a grinder and clencher, and must of irritated it.
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Areneli
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 6740
posted
Go back to your dentist. It is likely some complication after your extraction.
Posts: 1538 | From Planet Earth | Registered: Jan 2005
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posted
Thanks so much for the quick responses. Y'all make me feel better, even though my mouth still hurts. It helps so much to know that others understand & care enough to share info!!
This is not severe or sharp pain: just constant, nagging pain that causes your shoulder & neck muscles to be tied in knots. It's more like a dull ache, but sometimes my gum or entire mouth will throb for a while (not a new problem, just more often right now.)
I forgot to add my ear feels like I have an ear ache.
I'm OK as long as I keep taking aspirin. The heating pad & swishing warm salt water helps while I'm waiting for aspirin to take effect. One aspirin keeps me pretty comfortable, but unfortunately it wears off....
Have an appt to see my dentist at 9:00 in the morning. He is interested in learning about Lyme, but is not Lyme literate yet. I've said for several years that I think the bacteria are causing my teeth to change. He's convinced of it, too.
I have several crowns & a bridge & they come off from time to time. I think the part of the tooth they're "glued" to must be deteriorating & causing the problem. Only thing I can think of.
I guess the concensus is: be patient, hang on, & show those spirochetes who really is boss.
Posts: 4638 | From South Carolina | Registered: Mar 2001
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Beverly
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 1271
posted
Hi cbb,
Sorry to hear you are going through this.
"Could it be "trigeminal neuralgia" caused by Lyme or Babesiosis?" I think it is possible, I had a wisdom tooth pulled and it did soemthing to my TR nerve...I was in severe pain after it came out.( for a while.)
"It's an aching type of pain in the joint (trigeminal nerve?), under the jaw, & in the gums on that side of my mouth."
I had this too..it was awful, the dentist could not explain it to me though.. ?
I hope the dentist has some answers, and I really hope the pain goes away for you.
God Bless.
Posts: 6641 | From Michigan | Registered: Jun 2001
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posted
We do hear of more than a few dental problems here and I think you are right that lyme isn't good for tooth health. Why this should be, I don't know.
I had a crown installed that was subsequently too sensitive to chew on. Really aggravating and I didn't want any more dental stuff, so just put up with it. Dentist didn't think I should have the problem, but there it was. After a lot of time went by, I could chew on it after all. Strange? My conclusion is that the trauma stirred up ketes in nerves, and as someone else said, they tend to go to the site of injuries (like my old ice skating injury).
Posts: 8430 | From Not available | Registered: Oct 2000
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Feeling better today. When I saw my Dentist, he said a major part of my aching type pain & feeling like an ear ache was a small dry socket. It would heal itself in about 10 days, but he packed it & said I should be feeling better today. I'm happy to report I am improving.
Again, thank you to all who responded.
Posts: 4638 | From South Carolina | Registered: Mar 2001
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Though I'm improving, it seems to be very slow. I think those spirochetes are aggravating the situation.
Posts: 4638 | From South Carolina | Registered: Mar 2001
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I had a similar situation where pain never left after an extraction of a bad root canal. I also had diffuse jaw pain (which they wrote off from teeth clenching - not!), systemic aches and pains and severe sinus symptoms. I went from doctor to dentist to oral surgeon to endodentist to experts at top notch medical institutions here in Chicago. X-rays, MRIs, cat scans, blood smears (looking for acute infection)were taken. Nobody could find anything wrong, so the final recommendation was that I go on Neurotin (a nerve pain drug) for the rest of my life and "live with it".
I then started researching cavitations, NICO, and jaw osteomyelitis at http://www.maxillofacialcenter.com/NICO/mainindexNICO.htm as well as a forum on Delphi called the Chronic Jaw Pain forum. That was back in 2001. Since then I've had 8 surgeries, and have lost almost all my teeth at age 38 due to jaw osteomyelitis and Lyme disease (the two often go hand in hand and have similar symptoms). My parents also both have Lyme and osteomyelitis.
Did your dentist pull the peridontal ligament when he extracted your tooth and clean out the bone underneath? This is very important. Most dentists aren't trained to do this yet leaving the ligament can easily set up future infection or make existing infection worse.
I'm not saying you have cavitations or osteomyelitis, but if I were you I would check these things out, especially with your symptoms and having Lyme. Most dentists/oral surgeons are NOT able to diagnose sub-acute infections/cavitations on x-ray (from my own experience), there are really only a handful of experts in the U.S. If you want, I can provide you with a doctor's name who can give you an expert reading of your x-ray (which you can mail to him) - if you have even a subtle infection, he will find it. He is in Reno, and the only other expert at reading the films (in my opinion) is in NY. Both doctors are the best at these jaw surgeries, and the one in Reno is Lyme literate as well (he diagnosed my Lyme). I paid so much $ to go to so many dentists/doctors and had so much radiation from so many x-rays, and yet nothing was found - if only I'd known sooner about the Reno or NY docs, I'd saved a lot of $, time and radiation exposure. The doctor in Reno circled everything on my films, and all pathology from surgery has demonstrated osteomyelitis and NICO (not to mention the black rotting bone pulled from my jaws).
The condition needs to be treated as a medical condition (not dental - stay clear of dentists at this point) by doctors that deal with it regularly. It is very complicated and getting to the specialists with specific experience is required. Going to a dentist who is not familiar with these infections can actually make an infection WORSE.
For some reason most jaw OM patients also have Lyme disease. If I'd been diagnosed with Lyme earlier, I may have been able to save more teeth. Oh well, at least I'm now being treated for both the Lyme and the OM. If a lyme patient does not address any dental infections he/she has, then one will continue to re-infected from that bacteria factory in the mouth and therefore not beat the Lyme disease. Unfortunately cavitations and jaw OM are like Lyme in that they're very hard to treat, diagnose and find doctors that are knowledgeable or will even admit the problems exist.
I don't mean to overdramatize or scare anyone, I just hate to see anyone else go through what I've gone through. Since my journey with these 2 diseases, I know of 10 other friends who are fighting the same dental issues. I try and help others as much as I can, by sharing the knowledge and info from my own dental related experiences. I was only diagnosed for Lyme this August (from a bite back in 1999), which is why I'm here learning as much as I can from all of you
Best to all.
Posts: 50 | Registered: Jun 2005
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posted
cbb- I totally agree with what Paige1 is saying re: ligaments/cavitations/extractions. I had my last/3rd Root Canal extracted last wk by a biological dentist(Dr William Glaros, Houston,TX) He has a website that explains that testing that he does after the extraction to make sure all the infection is gone. I also had OM from two other RCs. If I had gone to a reg. dentist and had it extracted I don't think he would have done such a good job "cleaning" the site out. Some of it was covered by medical ins., he is not cheap, you get what you pay for, people come from out of state to see him.
Posts: 315 | From USA | Registered: May 2005
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