Tooth Trauma

I had an emergency root canal treatment on a front tooth when I fractured it. I ended up breaking off about a 1/3 of the tooth. I was out of town at the time, but when I returned home, my regular dentist checked out the work and said it was good. He put a crown on top of it. Everything was fine for about three years, then it started hurting again. I went back to the dentist and he didn’t see anything wrong with it so he sent me to an endodontist. By the time of my appointment, it had stopped hurting. The endodontist thought the problem was the tooth next to it. I don’t feel anything there and no one is doing anything about the tooth. I’m wondering if the root canal treatment failed.

Emily

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Dear Emily,

If the front tooth had a root canal treatment, then it would not be the one that gave you pain. The pulp of the tooth was removed. It would be rare for a front tooth to have any extra canals that could have been missed, so I am not thinking that there is a failed root canal treatment.

You said you broke off about 1/3 of your front tooth. That is a significant amount of trauma which would have also caused trauma to the adjacent tooth even though it didn’t break. Sometimes, when a tooth has trauma it does not show any signs of problems until a few years later.

Because the tooth is no longer hurting, it can mean one of two things. Either the tooth has recovered or the pulp of the tooth is dying. It doesn’t surprise me that your dentist didn’t see anything on the x-ray. It wouldn’t really show up until it turned into an infection.

This is not a dental emergency. I just recommend that you keep an eye on it during your regular check ups. It will show up on the x-ray when it becomes a problem.

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