Very Painful Mouth - At wits end!
Posted , 3 users are following.
Where to begin??? Back in January I had a lower right tooth filled with a temporary filling to last until the dentist could see me again 6 months later. Unfortunately during the night, this tooth got very painful to the point I was in agony. I called my dentist who got me in and gave me a block injection and removed the filling and re-did it but did not put so much stuff in as he believed it was this that was causing the pressure feeling.
After the injection wore off a few hours later, my teeth at the font were in extreme agony, a very painful sensitivity feeling all across them and this went on for a couple of months and the dentist was stumped as to what the problem was. He took xrays, sent me to a maxillo facial specialist and all checked out but I was still in this pain. I saw my GP who put me on Gabapentin 300mg 3x a day and this helped to numb the pain a little and makes everyday a little more bearable.
But ever since this, my hard pallate at the top of my mouth is always tingling (akin to stinging nettles being showed in there) along with a pressure feeling. My front teeth has this pressure feeling around them (more the top row) and there is still this senstivity problem with them. My lips will burn occasionally and my gums at the front will dry out a lot. My tongue has this white coating over it too.The only thing that helps, is eating or chewing gum, but chewing gum for too long gives me chronic jaw ache. I am basically at my wits end as this pain is just awful and really struggling to cope every day with this... I hope someone has come across this and can give me an answer as to how to treat / eliminate this pain 
0 likes, 4 replies
diannalynn Clinton1701
Posted
Geez - sorry for you. I have had pain on my top 2 front teeth since cosmetic work done from April and am told it should go away on its own - they say your mouth has to get used to the work done but I think it's my bite cause my bottom teeth keep hitting the back of my front teeth. I do have advice about getting the fillings redone from a separate problem I had-I wasn't told but every time a filling is done - they drill deeper which makes sense and they said my filling had to be changed from silver to the white kind (I didn't have any problem)- then pain ect - so long story short - my tooth ended up getting fractured - the kind that root canals don't fix so I ended up loosing my tooth. Don't let the dentist keep changing the filling if they don't know what's wrong. But the itching in your mouth - you sure your not allergic to whatever they put in your mouth?
Clinton1701 diannalynn
Posted
Hi, I wish I did have itching in my mouth but I don't. It's a tingling painful sensation just like having pins and needles but in the mouth (not very nice). I have been told that I have a blocked mucous passage below my left eye so I am left wondering would this have any bearing on this god awful pain I am in. I am seeing my doctor on Monday and I am going to demand more is done to figure out the root cause as I am getting to the stage whereby I just cannot cope much more
. The doctor back in feb, did put me on "Gabapentin" 300mg 3x day and i upped this to 2x300mg 3x a day - but after doing various reading up on this drug - this could be making it worse so I am now gradually weening myself off it but am worried the pain will intensify.... Sorry to moan but really am frustrated by this and wouldn't wish it on anyone...
k51551 Clinton1701
Posted
Hi Clinton--
Just wanted to tell you that I can completely understand what you're going thru. I was a normal person with a normal life until just over 2 years ago when I had a nightmare dental filling that changed the course of my life. Prior to having the filling, I was in no dental pain. Had the filing, the needle hit the nerve and it all went downhill from there. Constant pain for months -- I consulted with 6 dentists, 1 Endodontist, 2 Oral Surgeons and finally found an excellent dentist who wanted to crown the tooth -- I was terrifed to have a crown prep considering the "simple" filling was such a painful recovery...but I had found an excellent dentist and I trusted her. The crown prep wasn't nearly as painful to recover from as the filling was. So that tooth felt much better. Which was great, except now I had pain in several teeth, all over my mouth.. This wasn't referred pain, this was nerve pain that couldn't be explained by dental reasons. I lost two teeth (neither of which were the one with the nightmare filling) and I still have pain in several others for no apparent dental reason (my bite is off but this pain can not be explained by that). Long story short, I eventually ended up in my medical Dr's office and was prescribed Nortriptyline as well as Gabapentin..the Nortriptyline completely conquerd the sharp hideous pain but I still have a dull ache that moves from tooth to tooth, both sides, top and bottom. I'm currently titrating on the Gabapentin and hoping it will help. I'm at max dose of Nortriptyline per my GP but when I consulted with Neurology, they told me I cound still increase my dose if necessary.
What did you read that made you believe Gabapentin could make your pain worse?
Nortriptyline is an anti-depressant but many people find great pain relief from it too - somehow, it changes the way your brain sends or perceives pain signals (something like that -- they used to prescribe Elavil which is very similar to Notriptyline, but has harsher side effects). All I know is that it worked for me and reduced my pain dramatically within a few weeks of starting it.
Bottom line - I know how scared and desperate you feel. Dental pain is truly unique and horrifying experience. I've had kidney stones and bursting ovarian cysts. and I would take either of those over a bad toothache any day.
I am not a doctor or a dentist - consider that when considering my advice here. But I've read about people having a burning sensation like yours and it's been attributed to nerve damage or "Burning Mouth Syndrome" on several forums-- as I understand it, there are treatments for these conditions. Don't give up hope -- keep prodding for answers until you find relief. Nothing is worse than having doctor after doctor tell you they can't help you or don't know what's happening and don't offer a suggestion going forward. I know how stressful, painful and scary this is.
There are other drug treatments for people with a condition called Trigeminal Neuralgia that you could consider too. Talk about this with your doctor. Important to not have any unnecessary dental work done without a solid reason for the treatment when you may have a nerve condition.
Clinton1701 k51551
Posted
Hi,
Thank you for this and it makes me feel better knowing that there are other people out there who suffer with this.
In regards to taking Nortriptyline, I am currently on 45mg of Mirtazapine which I take at night to help me get to sleep so I doubt I will be able to go onto the other drug as well as. With Gabapentin - I have seen that the side effects of this are a dry mouth and I know that this in turn, can make the symptoms worse.
Regardless of this I have decided to increase my dosage of Gabapentin by 300 mg / day, so now on 1200mg but still waiting for the benefits. I may increase again after I have spoken to my GP as I am wondering if tapering down has caused this sudden increase in pain???
It's so annoying that so many people have this awful disease and yet the medical profession just don't know enough about it - I am wondering if this could be almost classed as a suicide disease just like TMJ is, as I hate to say it but stupid thoughts have entered my head
I am going to demand that my GP looks more into this when I see her and I am seeing a different dentist too at the end of the month for their opinion, but I am refusing to have any injections of any sort now as this will only make the nerve pain worse.
Thank you....