Donna, I hope you get a good report from the dentist. I have a missing molar from four years ago, and now the new one. I want to get two implants this summer, if I ever get the other problems resolved. I wasn't able to get a bridge for one of them, as it's the back tooth, and they need to be in between two teeth.
The crown doctor called and he thinks temporaries are causing that tooth to bite wrong and feel different. He said my molars are contacting well. But I can come in on Tuesday and he will look at it. But when I get permanent crowns, he will check the bite in my mouth. It’s the same as that other painful tooth I had pulled. But the other tooth never got better, although it kept getting irritated over the work I had done. Maybe it would have calmed down. I would have waited if it hadn’t become so painful after the exercise advice from TMJ doctor. It’s so confusing!
I just updated this post, but lost it! My appointment with the TMJ doctor went well, much better than the first one. She was firm but sympathetic, that I can handle. She said the same thing, that the nerves in my mouth are so irritated and inflamed, that it will take time to calm down. I shouldn't have pulled the tooth or had these recent crowns done, I'm doing too much work in my mouth. I explained that after following her advice to exercise, that the pain became excruciating. She said, so don't exercise! I replied that I apologize, but it caused me to discount what she was saying, and I thought that there must be a physical reason. She's said she's certain it needs to calm down because the pain keeps traveling to different teeth. It's one thing if you have an infection, but I don't. She said she's had patients do so much work in their mouth, that their nerves becomes so inflamed there is nothing she can do to help them. A cautionary tale! Since the extraction site was almost as painful, I guess she was right.
She looked at my xray and said I have arthritis in my jaw from the TMJ. But she said the mouth guard will help with that. I had canceled the lower mouth guard for day time, but she recommended I get it. I go back in two weeks when I get my permanent crowns to adjust the mouth guard and they will do an impression for the lower. She also said both mouth guards will help heal the nerves.
I am relieved that I don't have to do a lot of work adjusting the bite in my mouth. I thought that's why the teeth were painful. It didn't seem like I had that much work done before the two molars on the left side became painful. Most of the work was after that. Because the first crown was sore to chew on, I chewed and grinded my teeth on the left side for two months. I'm sure that caused a lot of irritation. I should have gotten the root canal in December, then I wouldn't have chewed on the other side for two months.
Actually, despite the pain and expense (thousands of dollars!), I'm kind of glad it worked out this way. I wouldn't have gotten a professional mouth guard otherwise, and it's sobering to know I'm starting to have arthritis in my mouth. The situation could have become a lot worse eventually.
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Sherry
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