Diagnosing irreverisble pulpitis

[elspouse]

I've now had multiple dentists/endodontists disagreeing on whether my tooth has irreversible pulpitis.
It had a very deep filling close to the pulp, so a sedative filling was put in.  The filling was too high and I started having pain, that continued for several weeks after it was adjusted.

The pain has recently subsided, but has not gone away completely.   Response to cold & percussion tests have been normal. Based on these facts, one dentist says it may mean the pulp is healing (he says if it was necrotic there would be no pain), and to give it a few more months.  Another has insinuated that it's possible to have reduced pain if one nerve has died and others are still inflamed.

Is it dangerous to wait another few weeks to see what happens, or am I risking irreversible harm and/or intense suffering if there is necrosis followed by an infection/abscess?

[scottma]

Abscess generally does'nt develop righjt after pulpal necrosis in a normal healthy subject. Other than eletric pulp test, clinilal thermel test may reveal pulp status. Necrotic pulp may be insensitive to cold stimulus and sensitive to hot stimulus. On the contrary, pulpitis tooth is sensitive to cold stimulus.

[elspouse]

Thanks for the info.  Do I risk horrible health consequences if an abscess develops during those six weeks?  Most recent x-ray taken today didn't show signs of an abscess - how fast does such an abscess usually take to develop?

[scottma]

Multirooted tooth may have one root pulpal necrosis and other root pulp vital. However, if one root pulp is necrotic, other root pulp will be necrotic over time. When all pulp are necrotic, electric pulp test will be a reliable test to determine vitality of pulp status.It may take another six weeks to reach definite diagnosis.