Do crowns hurt after a root canal

Crown placement is necessary for a variety of conditions related to your dental health, placed usually when fillings or other methods are unable to be used. They help protect, restore, stabilize, and keep your teeth aesthetically pleasing to look at. There are some procedures that may be uncomfortable or painful at the dentist, you may be wondering if crowns are painful or not. 

Is Getting A Crown Painful?  

Crown placements are used to help prevent further damage and protect a tooth. A majority of the time you should have no problem with a crown placement other than a slight amount of discomfort for a short period of time after the operation. Despite this, it is possible for crowns to become damaged and cause pain to you in the affected area. 

Under normal circumstances receiving a crown should not be a painful operation. A crown can eventually cause pain depending on a variety of factors. These include the way your crown was placed, the amount of care taken of the tooth, and the amount of pain tolerance you have.

It is possible that the crown may cause you to experience some sort of discomfort or pain. There are a variety of reasons this could be happening. Here are some of those:

• Cavities – Though used as a preventative measure to cavities, it is still possible for them to occur after a crown has been placed. This could be due to previous unknown cavities or poor care for a prolonged duration after the crown placement. When a cavity gets large and harmful enough without being discovered or taken care of, a root canal may be necessary. 

• Infection – If the tooth receiving a crown did not have a root canal procedure done on it, it will still have nerves which can be affected by the residue or pressure from a crown.  

• Bruxism (Teeth Grinding) – Bruxism (teeth grinding) can put pressure on and even break down your placed crown if consistent enough. This constant pressure on your teeth can cause pain, especially on a tooth which has a crown placed. 

• Sore Gums – Depending on how naturally sensitive your gums are, you may feel a temporary discomfort after the crown placement procedure. This discomfort shouldn’t last more than 2 weeks. If it does continue past the allotted time, we recommend contacting your dentist and being seen again so they can fix the issue.

• Recessed Gum Line – Pain and sensitivity can be more prevalent if the gum area around the tooth with the crown has recessed due to harsh brushing or gum disease. 

• Unfit Crown – Sometimes crowns aren’t placed correctly. You can commonly tell this if the pain you experience is prevalent when biting down. Your bite might feel out of its normal position, which can lead to jaw pain and possible headaches.  

What To Do If You Experience Pain After A Temporary Crown

The very first piece of advice we have is to schedule a visit with your local Central PA dentist. At our office, we are dedicated to providing excellent care for any patient new or old. Your dentist will be able to identify the root of the crown pain and should be able to help resolve the issue. 

To relieve your pain in the meantime, there are some methods you can try:

• Rinsing Your Mouth With Saltwater – Doing a basic saltwater rinse a couple times throughout the day for around 15 – 30 seconds can help greatly reduce pain and inflammation in the affected area. 

• Over The Counter Pain Relievers – Pain relievers such as Tylenol and Advil can help reduce the pain you are feeling for the time you are unable to see your dentist. 

• Consuming Easy To Eat Foods – You want to stray away from overly hard, chewy, and sugary foods to prevent the affected crown area from worsening. Hard and chewy foods can overwork the area and extra sugary foods can greatly increase the amount of bacteria your mouth needs to fight off. 

These methods are all temporary solutions to help hold you over until you are able to visit your dentist. If you are continuously experiencing pain after receiving a crown placement for more than 2 weeks that is when you should go back to the dentist. If the pain is so severe you can’t wait, we recommend scheduling an emergency dental visit to get the problem resolved as soon as possible. 

According to Colgate.com, sensitivity around the treated tooth is normal following a root canal, but it should only last a maximum of three to five days. Dr. Evanson can provide medicine to reduce inflammation and get you through this period.

However, if the pain persists longer than a few days, the procedure may have caused a complication. Consider the six possible causes of pain after a root canal according to dental health advice from Dr. Richard Mitchell, BDS and take the necessary steps to have it corrected.

Infection in the Bone

Perhaps you had a perfect root canal performed. The infected tooth is cleaned out, sealed properly and built up with a flawless filling or crown. However, if bacteria still mingle in the bone around the root, it could remain inflamed and painful.

Fortunately, with the source of infection removed (the dead tooth nerve), bacteria have nowhere to hide. Your immune system should be able to wipe out the infection in time. To speed up the process, you can request a course of antibiotics.

Infected Root Canal

It’s possible for a tooth to become infected even after having a root canal. This frustrating situation occurs when the filling leaks, allowing bacteria from your saliva to work their way in around the edges of the filling. Once inside the root canal, bacteria can create an infection within just a few days.

This is one reason many dentists cap the tooth with a crown after performing a root canal. It’s not always the go-to answer, though, because an already weakened tooth may be weakened beyond saving if it’s trimmed back to add a crown. At Evanson DDS, we use our professional experience to make the best decision for your oral health.

An infected root canal can usually be retreated, unless the root is cracked or the tooth has broken below the gum line. In these cases, tooth extraction may be necessary.

Cement or Air Forced Through the Root Tip

It’s possible to overfill a root canal with dental cement, causing a bit of the material to ooze out of the root tip. Whether this causes any pain depends on the precise filling material used, how much escapes and where it goes.

If the root tip itself was infected before the root canal, there’s probably room for a little excess cement and you’ll never know it was overfilled. If the tooth was not infected around the tip of the root, that’s when overfilling is likely to cause pain after a root canal.

It’s rare, but a tiny bubble of air can also be forced out of the root tip, causing pressure and pain. It may take some time, but the pain in either case should subside on its own.

Oversized Filling or Crown

If the final filling or crown is even a fraction too big, it hits the opposite tooth with too much force compared to surrounding teeth, which can cause pain after a root canal. Fortunately, this is an easy fix. The dentist simply needs to adjust the filling or crown to remove the high spot on the tooth, though the pain may still linger for three to five days.

Sodium Hypochlorite Leak

During a root canal treatment, the dentist washes the tooth roots with sodium hypochlorite, a solution that kills bacteria, dissolves any remaining nerve tissue and washes away the slurry that accumulates during the process. In rare cases, some solution can leak out of the root tip, causing immediate pain, even with the area still numb. After the dentist flushes and dresses the area, you may need to take antibiotics and painkillers for a few weeks until the pain subsides.

Missed Canal

Teeth have several canals and some of them are difficult to detect, especially in molars. It’s possible a dentist may overlook an infected canal, leaving a bit of nerve inside the tooth or a small pocket for bacteria to form an infection.

If a nerve is left behind, your tooth will remain sensitive to hot and cold as it was before the procedure. If bacteria are causing an infection, the tooth will be sensitive to pressure. Sometimes, the spaces left for bacteria to reside in are microscopic and found in the very tip of the root.

Neither problem will settle down on its own. You need a repeat root canal, preferably at Evanson DDS, where the experienced dental team uses state-of-the-art procedures to correct these types of mistakes.

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