Root canal is playing up!

[Jupp]

Hey

I had a root canal done two years ago in Australia and over the past two days my tooth has been hurting on and off and it especially hurts more when I bite on my tooth. I was told at the time the root canal was done that all the nerves were removed, so I am surprised as to how it can still hurt now even though all of the tooth's nerves have been removed during root canal?

Is it possible that the tooth needs to be removed and if that is the case, can anything else be done to save my tooth from having to be removed? Do you think antibiotics could work and if so, how long are they likely to take before their effects kick in and for this toothache to stop?

[Dr Mohsen J. Esfahani]

It is true that during root canal, bacteria and nerve tissue are removed from a tooth. But sometimes bacteria are not all removed or they return due to an inadequate seal. Even well filled Root canals can fail and I do not know of any dentist with a 100% root canal success rate. If a root canal fails, the tooth can either be re-root canal treated or extracted.