Good morning all,
I really need some advice. I don't know where to go from here. My trouble all started with a severely infected root fracture (lower right) that took three months to properly diagnose. I had the tooth pulled by an oral surgeon who needed to clean out the infection and then later, place an implant. The pain never got better. It was a horrible tooth abscess like pain only it was located in the very back of my mouth where there wasn't even a tooth. After many appointments with the oral surgeon who said he couldn't find anything wrong, I finally ended up at the endodontist who root canaled the very back molar. Still I did not get any relief. At this point the endodontist was arguing with the oral surgeon as he could see the tooth extraction site in the lower jaw bone had not healed yet and after 8 months he thought it should have. I was refered to the Mayo and thought finally, I'm going to get to the bottom of this. I was wrong. On July 2nd I had surgery to place a tiny artificial bone in the nonhealing site and was cut all the way around my lower teeth, right side in a u shape. WORST pain I have ever had in my life. Nothing helped and the doctors acted like I was being dramatic. Even on top of the pain meds I was sent home on, I was literally shaking in pain. I healed, life went on. The pain was now in the roof of my mouth, going up my cheek into my forehead in addition to the pain in my lower right jaw. Mayo said there was nothing they could do for me and planned to refer me to the pain clinic. This took over a month to do. In the mean time, I ended up in the ER the pain was so bad. I was put on 300 mg gabapentin. This seemed to help the pain everywhere but my lower jaw. That has never left. I was sent see another specialist by my primary care doctor for the lower jaw pain as my jaw swells, the gum is red and inflamed and the pain in that area responds to antibiotics. She also slowly upped the gabapentin to 600mg and suggested I call the Mayo. The Mayo wouldn't see me but told me the gabapentin wouldn't help me and to wean myself off of it. I'm seeing another specialist for but tonight the pain came back up my cheek and into my forehead, it's almost as though someone is lightly touching that path. My MRI came back as negative for trigeminal neuralgia but does this sound familiar to any of you? I would appreciate any advice. I haven't had a day without pain in 10 months.