Bilateral... At the same time?

General General TN & GPN (Old Site)
1

I'm primarily Type 1 bilateral bottom two branches both sides, and have been managing a flareup on my left side for about the past month. I'm taking 75 mg Lyrica 3x/day, 100 mg Tegretol 2x/day, and 100 mg Amantadine 2x/day this time and it's been working pretty well for me, although I expect to be increasing the dosage soon.

Yesterday I was out working and noticed that I had a sharp pain on my right upper side near the midline over my canine tooth, but not like TN. I felt in my mouth and a HUGE abcess had popped up sometime in the hours between 6 am and 1 pm. It looked like a balloon in my mouth when I checked it!

I managed to get in for an emergency visit to the dentist. He felt around, tapped all the teeth up there, applied cold, nothing caused a reaction. Three of the teeth on that side had root canals, and one of them has a shattered root that causes abcesses now and then so I figured it was that. He took x-rays and it turned out that the canine needs a root canal, but the only pain was where the skin of my gum had swollen.

He numbed me up until I couldn't feel my face and started drilling. When he hit the nerve I felt it, so he stopped and put me on antibiotics. On a good day I'm difficult to numb, infection makes it impossible. I'm going back in on Friday to finish the job.

Last night I went to bed early and this morning I accidentally slept in, so I'm off on my med schedule by a bunch of hours. When I woke up, my left side was starting up... but I feel something on my right side as well. Kind of by my ear, not by the tooth. It's not quite the right sort of pain, but it is sort of similar to the warning pain/burning I sometimes feel before the full flareup begins.

I did have a dentist rummaging around in my wide open mouth, so it could be muscles hurting. Or it could be referred pain from the infection site. I've never had both sides act up at the same time before, and I've heard that it's almost impossible. I sleep like the dead and have never woken up for TN or any other sort of pain, so it could have been hurting all night.

Has anyone ever had bilateral pain at the same time caused by temporary dental trauma?

2

I have pain on both sides on my jaws at the ear level both of my ears. I am bilateral. I did not used to be. I became bilateral in January of this year as a result of having a tooth fixed on the left lower side and having a shot in the back. I was originally only type 2 mainly and on the right side. Now I am both. There are some cases where they calm down tho, and I hope for you that they do.. good luck!!!

3

Infection makes everything more sensitive. When I get a sinus infection my face hurts more. So don't despair, hopefully everything will settle down after you've been on the antibiotic for 48 hrs.. my thoughts are with you.,, Min

4

I think I would agree with Cleo that your dentist doesn't seem to be exercising adequate care with regard to appropriate treatment of potential infection before doing root canal. However "eating the bone away" (necrosis) is not an instantaneous or even very rapid process. So if you are now on an antibiotic, then you should see improvement within 48-72 hours in the level of inflammation and swelling in your gum. Your profile indicates that you've had bilateral pain for quite some time, possibly pre-dating some of your dental issues. Sorting out that kind of history is a job for a well qualified neurologist or maxillo-facial surgeon, not a dentist.

Regards, Red

5

Thanks all!

I was a bit surprised to have this dentist start a root canal before antibiotics. My old one used to get the prescription, then schedule the appointment. Unfortunately the office they're both at has this stupid new policy of making you go in first.

We're watching the shattered root abcess, but the repair work is more than I can afford at the moment (total price is around $5k for removal and replacement with an implant after they rebuild the bone) and I sort of need that side to chew. With a daughter just starting college and now paying for my father-in-law's funeral, it might be a while, but the bone is already gone. I watch it closely because dental infections have a nasty habit of getting to your heart.

Red, thanks for your comments. I've got a fairly decent neurologist who helps me manage the usual pain. I was just a little creeped out this morning to think that I could have "usual" TN on one side and "dental" TN on the other. By this afternoon both were gone again, so now I'm even more confused. Either the right side fixed itself, or taking my meds helped both. With a little luck I won't oversleep again and find out.

6

i personally have never heard of a dentist working on an abcess before giving a round of antibiotics first. i would also skip the root canal and got for an abstraction. although if its a front tooth i might consider an implant but i would check with my neuro first to see if it could aggrevate the TN

7

I went to my appointment on Friday, and the dentist was a little surprised to see me. I'm starting to wonder if the front desk people are the problem, it seems like they're jumping the gun on getting appointments scheduled.

We talked about it and he asked me if I was having any pain. I said no, I haven't had any pain at all except for the abcess on the gum and when he hit the nerve on the initial appointment. He said we should just go for it because the antibiotics should be working by now. I agreed because I'm busy and didn't want to go back.

Turns out that was a mistake. I got to feel the whole thing because the nerve just wouldn't numb up.

On the up-side, it's done and over with. I think the pain I was feeling must have been from having my mouth open for so long. It hasn't come back and I'm not complaining.

8

I have pain on both sides when things are at their worst, and a lingering something on the left when things are quieter. I think I originally started as one side, but just did not recognize the pain for so long. Thought it was my teeth, sinuses, cluster headache, blah, blah, blah... Sorry you are twinging on the left, too. It's no fun.