I have recently had a crown on a rear bottom tooth. I had lost part of my tooth due to excessing grinding and fillings kept coming out. The dentist put in a temp filling for a few weeks. This was extremely painful for a few days, the gum went white underneath and there was a lot of pain in the jaw / gum but no pain in the tooth. I think this was due to long term problems I have with TMJ but cleared up after a few days.
I returned to dentist for crown prep and explained the situation. She prepped the tooth for the crown and said that due to this problem with the temp filling and the fact that the hole went close to the root cavity I may need RCT. Since I was not in pain and there was nothing evident on the x-ray, she said she would put temp crown on and when perm crown came in she would put it on with temp cement for a few months to see if there was a problem. The temp crown was fine for a few days, except the bite was too high. After a few days a bit broke off and after that there was a swishy feeling whenever I bit down but no pain. I explained this to the dentist when I went for the perm crown.
The perm crown was put in and i found it much bigger than original tooth (level on the outside but sticks out on inside by about 1/2 a tooth) which is uncomfortable. It is also a lot higher and is the first tooth hit everytime I bite down. After a few days I noticed that the gum under the tooth had become swollen but I had no pain, so I returned to ask the dentist to file it down as I thought that it was bruising the gum. She had a quick look and said I had an abscess and may need RCT and gave me antibiotics. She said that even though she had suggested temp cement because I was in no pain she had actually used perm cement so would have to drill through.
Gum still swollen and felt wobbly, so saw dentist again. She took another x-ray which showed infection in the gum rather than the root canal so gave me more antibiotics but hasn't improved things so says I need RCT.
I have 2 concerns - is is an abscess / RCT if I have no pain and no sensitivity to hot / cold and if I need RCT does it make it worse now that the crown is on.
Many thanks