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Pain Flossing Between Teeth After Fillings

About 2 months ago, I had 3 fillings done on my teeth. They were each described as being very small and minor, and that they were caught before they could get any bigger. They were each in between my teeth: two in between teeth #19 and #20 (one on each tooth), and one in between #18 and #19 (on the #19 side). The procedure itself went fine - no pain or discomfort during, and I felt comfortable with my dentist. Prior to getting these fillings, I had no clue I even had any cavities as I felt no discomfort, and they were caught on an x-ray image during my check-up.

As soon as I began flossing after getting the fillings done, I noticed discomfort and pain when I flossed between teeth #19 and #20. As soon as the floss entered the teeth and left the teeth, I felt a twinge of pain that I've never felt before - bad enough that I didn't want to floss between those 2 teeth. Once I entered the teeth, I could go up and down without any discomfort, but entering and leaving the top of the teeth is where I felt the pain. They did not bother me when I clenched my teeth or drank hot or cold foods. In addition, once I flossed those teeth and they were irritated with pain, if I flossed in between neighboring teeth, I'd feel that lingering pain in between #19 and #20 (for example, if I flossed #17 and #18, I might have felt pain in between #19 and #20). As a couple of days went by, I also notice that if I ate something hard and crunchy and it hit the teeth in the right spot - about where the floss would enter on the top - I'd feel that same twinge of pain. The teeth in general were fine, though. I could poke at them, eat food otherwise and feel fine.

I went back to the dentist a couple of weeks later and he wasn't sure why it was happening. He checked my bite, took another x-ray, checked the fillings -- he thought all looked good. He told me the teeth might still be sensitive from working on them, and told me to be careful with them, and check back in with him in another week if I'm still feeling discomfort. I tried not to eat on those teeth, I flossed as carefully as I could and I began to use sensodyne. Over this time, I noticed that the pain was barely noticeable in the morning, and that the bad pain existed mostly only at night when I'd typically floss. I thought the pain was getting better as days went by, but one day I flossed and the pain was awful, so I went back to my dentist.

Since my dentist still has no answer, he recommended replacing the fillings between teeth #19 and #20, as it's hard for me to pinpoint which tooth is the one causing trouble (the pain radiates in that area). He did one on one day, and the other filling on another day. Now it's been a week since those fillings were replaced and I'm still feeling discomfort. As of now, the pain's a little better, but it's impossible for me to tell if it's going to get worse. I'm feeling a bit helpless at this point as my dentist felt it likely wasn't the roots of my teeth since I can drink hot/cold just fine, nothing showed up on the x-ray, etc, although he obviously didn't want to rule it out. I'm of course going to go back to my dentist, but I wanted to see if anyone here could offer any advice or help.

Thank you!
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Avatar universal
I'm having the same problem right now, everything you were saying IM GOING THROUGH IT RIGHT NOW. My dentist doesn't see anything on my X rays everything looks good and I'm still having discomfort, I've been using Sensodyne, it helped a little, but I still feel pain when I eat. I had 3 fillings done in November and 3 in Janauary.
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Avatar universal
hello
did you ever find the solution? I have the same problem with no answers form the dentist.
thank you
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Avatar universal
Did you ever find a resolution to this? Had a couple fillings done a few weeks back and have the exact same pain you describe... Wondering if i should go see my dentist or wait it out a bit.  
Helpful - 0
1 Comments
hello
did you ever find the solution? I have the same problem with no answers form the dentist.
thank you
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