I think a dentist may have messed up my face...help!

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Long story short: About 16 months ago, I had a root canal (well, it was completed around then). I’d had a molar that was slightly cracked, and the nerve was very sensitive to heat and cold.

Things went reasonably well enough, considering it was a root canal, but after the crown was put on there were these rather disturbing side effects:

  1. I have a loss of sensation in the skin of my lower lip (left half), extending all the way down to my chin. When brushed lightly, it feels almost hypersensitive, nearly ticklish–and yet at the same time, prickly. It’s rather like the “pins and needles” sensation you experience when you’ve accidentally pinched off circulation in a limb, except the feeling is only there when touched.

  2. I experience random little facial twinges in this area…nothing too frequent or deforming, but it gets my attention. It happens a few times a week (whereas, no other part of my face does this or has in the past).

  3. ** Pain.** The crown doesn’t fit well and food is constantly getting wedged inbetween the crown and gum, making things very painful. I floss constantly to remove these aggravating particles.

I’ve been to the dentist time after time about this; last time, they put on a little more cap stuff to try to seal the area so food wouldn’t wedge in. Worked for about 3 weeks, then gradually returned to “normal.” I also saw the endodonist who did the root canal about the loss of sensation; he said the Xrays are normal and the nerve sometimes needs up to a year to heal.

It’s been over a year. Frick!

I have another appointment tomorrow, but I am growing more and more nervous about this whole situation. I know how permanent nerve damage can be, and I’m freaking out that I’ll have this weird feeling on my lip for forever. I know in the overall scheme of things it’s minor, but it’s my face fercryinoutloud, and whenever my husband caresses it gently, I cringe when he hits that area.

Can anyone offer reassurance? Has anyone been in this, or a similar, position before? Is there a dentist on the board? What’s a root canal supposed to do, anyway? Have I been a victim of dental malpractice?

Geez, as if going to the dentist weren’t unpleasant and nerve-wracking enough already… :frowning:

2

uh, well…oh, sorry! damn the man! i say go in there with a friend dressed up as a lawyer and scare the fixin’s out of that damn dentist!

3

Yeah, I’ve been there. Do me a favor and go do this test. Look in a mirror, and try to make a broad grimacing smile. Try to stretch the corner of your mouth as far as possible, one side at a time. Then both sides together. If there is any assymetry, you might be suffering from “lingual nerve parasthesia” (I hope I remembered that right, I am not a doctor or dentist, just repeating what my dentist told me). Alas, this is a relatively common side effect of some dental procedures like root canal or wisdom teeth extraction. Since it is a “normal” side effect, you can’t really sue for malpractice. In my case, it was caused by malocclusion, which just means your teeth don’t meet evenly when you bite down. My nerves were stressed due to overwork, a common symptom of “TMJ Syndrome.” Do your teeth meet evenly, or is the molar higher than the other teeth? An uneven bite can cause all sorts of problems, including nerve damage and loss of sensation, jaw dislocations, etc.
I think you might need a specialist here. An orthodontist can deal with malocclusion. You might need an otolaryngologist look at the problem if it is strictly nerve related. Let me know about my two little tests and perhaps I can assist further.

4

Chas E., I did your tests but everything was fine. Anyway, here’s the scoop:

Went to dentist, they took Xrays that looked fine, didn’t know what else to do. (They will be patching the crown a bit; it left a gap on the side…but this is unrelated to the loss of feeling.) So–they sent me to an oral surgeon.

Oral surgeon inspects Xrays and assures me that according to them, my root canal went just fine. Sometimes endodontists will “over drill,” or something like that, and wind up poking into the nerve that runs along the jaw. Not the case here. He then did a serious of tests to determine the extent of damage, such as dragging a cotton swab back and forth over the area and seeing if I can identify which direction it was traveling in (while my eyes are closed, obviously). He said I scored 100% on those series of tests, except that I don’t feel pain in that area as sharply as I do on the other side, his control site. (For example, poke me with a needle on the right, it will hurt rather sharply and throb afterwards. On the left, it will hurt, but be duller…and then not throb afterwards.)

The surgeon went on to tell me he’s had patients who’ve scored at 80, 60, even 40% in that test–so as far as nerve damage goes, it’s very minor.

Of course, it’s still nerve damage. He speculated that maybe the nerve is inflamed and swollen; it fits in a small canal in the jawbone, and if swollen, can have effects like I’m having. Of course, why it would still be inflamed after 15 months is a mystery.

What could he have done? He said they could do an exploratory surgery–involving cutting open my jaw bone to get to the nerve and inspect it. However, 1) it could makes things worse, 2) it could prove that the nerve is damaged–and there’s nothing they can do, or 3) it could possibly make things better. Considering the options, and the mild level of problem I’m experiencing, I opted to just live with it. That really sucks, but oh well.

When I expressed concern over it possibly happening again with another root canal or cavity filling, he said it would be like winning the lottery twice. Statistics show that 1 in 250,000 patients will have the effects I did even when everything went perfectly well during a procedure. Some have that effect just from getting the anesthetic shot. Makes everyone just want to run to the dentist, eh? :rolleyes:

5

Laura,

Mrs. Pluto had a somewhat similar experience – a facial nerve damaged while undergoing dental work. Like you, they told her it would take a while but it would get better, that it “just happened” sometimes, and that there was nothing they could do about it. In her case, at least, it did heal after a long time.

I’m not sure I have a particular complaint against the dentist. He’s competent and has done good work for us in every other instance. Way better than our previous dentist. But the fact of the matter is – there was no one else in there “rooting” around.

I guess this is just your particular shower in the rain that falls in everyone’s life. Look on the bright side – it is relatively minor, although certainly annoying. But you are young. It is an unusual thing for you to have bodily complaints, where everything isn’t ticking over just fine. Old, er, middle-aged, um, not quite so young people like me find new squeaks and wheezes all the time and the doctor just tells us that’s normal for our age. No relief and no sympathy either.

6

Ah, well that’s good, I suppose. You sound like you’ve made a wise choice, I find that when you get surgeons involved, the first thing they want to do is operate. When a situation is this marginal, the “cure” usually turns out worse than the problem. But do keep an eye on your bite, watch out for popping and clicking in the jaw, headaches, etc. Some people (like me) are very sensitive to malocclusion, some people aren’t. Not much you can do but wait and see how it turns out, and take any possible preventative measures to make sure it doesn’t deteriorate. I suspect that as long as it doesn’t get worse, you’ll be satisfied.

7

Life is all nerve damage of one sort or another. Every Day Is A Winding Road. Etc.

8

A Change Will Do Me Good?