infection under crown?

[Tessa]

Hi

I recently had a new crown fitted by my dentist after my tooth broke down and the tooth needed to be built up again. After the crown was fitted, I noticed that it was the first tooth that touched when I closed my mouth but my dentist said that it will eventually get better and I will get used to it.

For the past 2 weeks, the crown has been gradually causing more and more pain to an extent that now I cant bite on that crown anymore and the pain is very severe. Do you think there might be infection under that crown? My dentist is now on holiday till next week. What do you recommend that I should do to stop this terrible tooth pain?

[Dr Vahid Motahar]

Hi,

Thank you for your question.

When a new crown is fitted or even a new filling is placed, sometimes it takes time for the bite to adjust and if there are some minor problems like high spots it will adjust on its own accord. But if the problem has not settled after 2 weeks and has become severely painful, then you do need to see a dentist to correct the bite and make some adjustments. This does not mean there cannot be infection there and your tooth needed to be investigated for this possibility but correcting the bite and checking this will be the first line of treatment.