Pain After A Root Canal

[Stan]

I had a root canal done about a month ago and I still feel pain. In my follow-up appointment, the dentist said that I could be having ghost pains but from my understanding ghost pains eventually stop with pain medicine. My pain continues to exist even after I take analgesics. He went on to say that there may be other reasons for my pain such as grinding. I do grind my teeth at night and sometimes find myself clenching my teeth tightly together during the day. Could this be the reason for my pain. I have no idea what it is and I need more information on pain after a root canal. Is it possible for a root canal not to work?

[Dr Vahid Motahar]

Hi,

Thank you for your question.

Certainly clenching, bruxism and grinding the teeth can cause toothache. This is more so with teeth that have had root canal treatment as studies has shown that more occlusal or loading forces are placed on teeth that have had root canal treatment due to loss of some of the receptors. However this alone may not be the cause of your discomfort.

When a successful root canal treatment is done it is not unusual to experience pain and discomfort around the time of the treatment and soon after that. However in the majority of the cases it is expected for the discomfort to gradually subside until it completely is resolved if the treatment is successful. Having said this root canal treatments can have many uncertain factors associated with them and some times even with the best root canal treatments teeth still remain tender and uncomfortable to bite on or chew with. My suggestion to you would be to investigate all possibilities and treat the possible causes and then monitor the tooth over time. If all other possibilities are ruled out then the root canal may not have been successful and may has to be redone.