I started a full-mouth implant restoration more than two years ago, the problem is that still working on it and it has become my living nightmare. As you understand if a process that takes on the average 9 months to completion is still going on for 28 months and still in ground zero there must have been lots of problems on the way. The worse mistake I did it was that I chosen a young inexperienced dentist but it was highly recommended to me. Along the painful process (as it was diagnosed after the fact by Dr. Tony Pogrel), one of the little unnamed branches of the inferior alveolar nerve (IAN) was injured/compressed. The TN type of pain was triggered during torquing of implants #29,#30 when I felt an electric nerve pain during the process performed by the doctors assistant(he was busy at the time with other patient...problem of multitasking!). There were at least 30 times that all the implants were screwed/unscrewed so it maybe that the assistants action just walk up the lions. I knew from the beginning where the pain was originating under/around #29,#30 before spreading on the entire right side of my head, the worse pain that I ever felt in my life. Never in my life had TN but I did study the subject and became a member of the group to understand and hear from others for TN symptoms. My pain fits the picture of TN caused by dental procedure. The pain was misdiagnosed as infection or VDO or TMJ or Myofascial pain syndrome or pain caused by a slow healing socket of tooth #27 that was extracted at the beginning of the treatment. The doctor was in denial, even though I requested him to remove the implants that the pain originated he refused to do so because he was under the impression that he did nothing wrong and suggested pain management specialists. I knew that TN does not appear all of a sadden and especially to one 65 year old and I knew when the pain started, how it started and where it started.. I ignored my dentist’s misdiagnosis/suggestions especially after I heard from one of our members, Cloy, that for similar verve damage her dentist was recommending TN surgery. Likely for her the TN type of pain stopped before she went under the knife. Nerve damage/injuries usually heal by our immune system in around 3 months or they become chronic . I followed our group’s suggestions and visited Dr. Pogrel at UCSF. After he studied my treatment history, the x-rays and CT-scans he told me that if it was him he would have removed the implants in question long time ago, as you know if a damaged/injured/compressed nerve is not treated right away it may become chronic; I hope this is not the case with me and anyone else. To make the long story sort, after Dr. Pogrel removed both implants #29 and #30 the TN type of pain was eliminated in fact I felt the release right after the removal.
Anyway, the lesson here is that you should never take your dentist face value, they are humans like us and make mistakes, we are the ones that feel the pain not them. This saga cost me so far 8 months with the worse pain I ever experienced before in my life, it change my way of living I messed my stomach with all the pain killers, I postponed vacations, family nad friend gatherings and every little activity that makes our life complete.
I cannot overstate how devastating an TN nerve injury can be. In fact, long ago, this injury was referred to as the suicide injury. Why? Because it drove those suffering from it to attempt suicide to escape the debilitating affects of this combination of numbness and acute pain.
You can email me directly if you like more details of my TN due to dental procedure saga.
Cheers, Nikos