The past few years have been awful! The left side of face has several areas of pain. It all started after I got a bad sinus infection that I don’t feel like I completely cleared. For the first time in my life (40 now) I developed sinus pain in my left maxillary sinus. ENT visits & scans revealed low level inflammation & a sinus cyst. The ENT’s all say to check with dental. The dental people say my teeth are fine. I go back to one ENT & he performed a procedure in his office thru my mouth into my left sinus & did the balloon sinuplasty procedure. It was very quick & he did not see anything to drain while in there. So I still was getting upper jaw pain & I ended up getting a root canal on tooth 14 which turned out to be necrotic & was still in pain so I had it removed & was told it was infected & good I got it out. That didn’t solve the upper jaw pain so new ENT & more scans & again just showed low level inflammation & a cyst. So I had tooth 12 removed which is on the same side & it was a 25 year old root canal that had black at the end of it on an X-ray but was told it could be scar tissue from how it healed or it could be an infection. Desperate I removed it by a holistic dentist & it suppositly had an abscess on it. He said it had contact with the sinus. A small contact which he put collegian plug material inside. 10 days later I get throbbing pain above extracting site. I go back to the oral surgeon & he says it was an easy extraction & everything was healing fine. I developed one sided nasal drip with yellow & oral surgeon thinks it’s a sinus infection so off to urgent care I go for meds. That didn’t help so I went and got another round no help. I had an MRI which showed nothing, I had a CT scan which showed nothing, had a dental scan that showed nothing. Been going to dr after dr to figure this out! Did the extraction not heal correctly? Who knows?? On X-ray it looks like it is. And so to ADD to my fun about 6 weeks after extraction I start to develop nose pain! Yes, lucky me!! So I was like is this nerve pain? Referred pain or what? I let it go for weeks then finally went to an ENT that put scope up my nose and everything looked fine & he blamed nerves. I went to another ENT who did a scope and said he saw a scab in nose and diagnosed nasal vestibulitus. I did an antibiotic and a cream & my nose felt better but not 100% better. Weeks later I get a cold & my nose starts to throb & back to ENT where he does the swab and it came back normal. He told me to do antibiotic cream which did nothing and prescribed bactrim because I looked inflamed inside nostril and that did nothing so another MRI which showed the usual. More ENT’s, Neurologists, face pain drs, dental- fast forward to today. I am working with a new ENT. The inside of my nose has been very dry & was told it could be the neuro meds (amtripline 25 mg very low dose) which even after I switched to cymbalta duloxitine sister drug 20 mg. I also have symptoms of mucous in nose which sinus rinses help keep clean.
The side of my nose left side above extraction site flares up and throbs deep ache at times. I don’t have sharp shooting pain & I can sleep at night no problem. It’s hard to explain of all this with your head spinning but really it’s been a sh*t show from the very beginning. I am going to do another MRI later this month. Then going to see about a bone scan to see if the area of extraction healed ok.
So left side upper jaw pain on and off. My Left sinus does have low level inflammation & a cyst. I get a full feeling with my left sinus if I bend forward or turn my head on that side. The left side of my nose hurts ever since extraction & varies in intensity- deep ache. My nose which may be something completely different & coincidental has been painful all year. Mostly my septum hurts & if I rub it it sets off pain. Inside the left nostril against the septum it hurts. So- basically because that pain occurred about 6 weeks after extraction it has been lumped by drs into something to do with the extraction yet a lot of dental people disagree. Ugh!!! Am I the only one who is losing their marbles over all of this??? Please tell me now! So I don’t know if they cleaned my sinus if it would fix some issues or if that extraction healed correctly, or if my nose is separate or if it has something to do with the extraction.
So does your pain vary in intensity? I just want this nightmare to end! Also, have been diagnosed as Atypical face pain by several drs but just not so sure.
I understand your pain and frustration. My face nerve pain started after a long dental procedure several years ago. Despite my Neurologist telling me it was blood vessels touching nerve at base of skull I am convinced it all emanates from the dental procedure.
My pain is on the right hand side of my face. It also stems from roughly where the dental procedure took place on top lip and underside of my nose. If I touched the side of my nose i would get a sharp shock which would travel from my lip, to under my eye then to my forehead. Major pain and electric shocks seemed to occur when seasons change and for me recommenced about 3 months ago. I even went back on Tegretol to manage the pain even though I hate drugs.
I am in a really good place at the moment and it has been because of finding a really great Chinese trained acupuncturist who specialises in nerve related injuries. I commenced acupuncture several weeks ago and the pain (electric shocks) which lasted up to 30sec have now completely stopped and I am pain free. What also helped was taking a naturopathic treatment called PEA (Palmitoylethanolamide). Check it out on Wikipedia. I think it was developed to deal with neuropathic pain. Acupuncture reduced my pain from a 12 out of 10 to 0.5 out of 10. Since taking PEA it has completely gone. I can occasionally feel the nerve impulses but absolutely no pain or shocks. At one stage it was so bad I could not eat or talk to anyone during onset of pain.
Everyone is different so am not sure if you or anyone else would get anything from this treatment. My issue I believe is from the dental work and damage to the nerves around the molar and hence the above treatment has appeared successful. I will be taking PEA for a little while to ensure there is no recurrence. It is a bit expense but very worth it. When I first took PEA the nerve pain increased just after swallowing the dissolved powder solution but I persevered and after 3 days the pain has completely vanished. I assume the pain activity after swallowing was because it was impacting on damaged nerves. I guess only time will tell if i have a major recurrence. If I do I will be back to acupuncturist and taking PEA. I hope you can find a way to manage your condition.
Thank you for sharing your story. I will definitely try acupuncture. I guess my thing is I want confirmation that it is nerve related. I have been stressing it’s something with the bone not healing right. On one breath it’s great to read other people’s stories so you know your not alone but sometimes you read horror stories especially with dental that makes me panic. Dr after dr say oh Alison the gum healed over it’s fine, oh Alison you have had so much imaging & it didn’t show anything, oh Alison it’s been over a year since the extraction & by now things would show. Thing is I read NOT TRUE! There have been people that had issues even though the gum was healed. Dental infections can be really hard to detect on an x-ray even ct & mri. I hate having multiple areas of pain too. Every dr lumps it into one simple diagnosis when I can have different things going on. Again all left side for me. I hate not know if my nose pain is connected to the extraction or if it’s a ENT issue. The pain gets eerie too just a deep scary pain no electric shocks. Sorry I am rambling on! Time will tell for me. I just have been in a doom in gloom state for a while now & just want this cloud over my head to pass!
Trouble with nerve related pain is that it is very difficult to determine the cause. For years I did think (was almost convinced) my pain came from a dental infection. In your case (my theory) I would think it is a nerve issue and when extraction took place the numbing needles might have damaged the myelin sheath on nerves surrounding the tooth. No matter if the gum healed the nerves have still been damaged. I had a wisdom tooth out a few years ago and dental surgeon said i might end up with a numbing tingling sensation in my jaw because during extraction nerves do get crushed and damaged, in particular the mandibular nerve. And I did! I also had an extraction of an upper molar on my left side which actually had pierced my sinus tube which meant that any tooth infection would drain directly into my sinus and not cause any pain. I had that tooth out and an implant put in. Everything is ok now. I really hope you find the issue and find a way to ameliorate the pain. Sometimes it is not the actually pain that upsets me it is the constant worry of being zapped or unable to function in a social situation because i can’t speak or eat with friends. It drove me nuts! Take care and I hope it all gets resolved soon. Please try acupuncture and the PEA. It is definitely worth trying.
Thank you again. I am not looking for trouble but am hoping it’s nerve pain & not a dental infection. Also tired of spending on dr visits!! I will try acupuncture.
I feel silly saying I rather have the nerve pain over the dental infection. It’s just my reading horror stories has gotten in my head. Of course I rather not have either! I have no clue what your shocks feel like. It must be awful! Mine is a deep ache that varies in intensity. It stinks! Will try acupuncture.
Make sure you get a CT cone scan of your jawbone to Make sure you don’t have a jawbone infection like I did. It’s called a cavitation or NICO issue. A regular dentist exray will not pick it up!
Ok I had a dental CT scan about 5 weeks after the extraction. That may be too soon after the extraction but the oral surgeon said it looked like it was healing. I had panoramic & I know that doesn’t show up. I had a CT scan which should be able to pick it up, I had an MRI with contrast. So be radiated so much! so I am going to get another MRI with contrast & if that doesn’t show anything I will get another dental cone beam scan.
Get to the correct doctor period. Only a oral oncologist can help, even thou it’s not cancer. They are the only ones with intimate knowledge of how to deal, fix, your issue. Your sinus could have been perforated during the extraction, or/ the cyst is expanding and contracting. Cysts do this, it’s their nature.These are the doctors the oral surgeons refer to when they throw up theirs arms and don’t know what’s going on.
The best to you
Wow never heard of an oral oncologist. I live near a dental school & have seen an oral surgeon there & an orafacial Pain dr. The sinus specialists I have seen have said cysts don’t cause symptoms that out of 100 people walking 20 people may have it & never even know. I have read a sinusitis forum where a discussion is about sinus cysts & people swearing it is causing pain. I have heard a lot of cysts can be caused by dental in the maxillary sinus & I have been to dentists a ton & nothing is showing up. I basically have 2 teeth left on that side because of wisdom teeth pulled in my 20’s & 2 teeth pulling last year. That last extraction I regret! Both extractions did have contact with sinus. The first oral surgeon immediately stitched it up & the last extraction was a minor contact and he put bone material in. Interesting on the oral oncology though
Hi, I am sorry that you are going through all of that hell. I recommend when you get that MRI, that they use one with a CISS, VIBE, FIESTA, or similar protocol. These are better at viewing damaged nerves, cists, etc.
so I am going to get another MRI with contrast & if that doesn’t show anything I will get another dental cone beam scan.