Dental Emergency

Question by any:
Help -severe pain and swelling to gums after a root canal treatment -what could be the problem?
4 days ago I had a root canal treatment to a pre molar (on my bottom right) after that there is no tooth (i.e a gap), following some infection seen on an OPG x-ray that I had for some other work there were no symptoms otherwise in this tooth i.e. no pain or gums swelling.

Day 1 -after treatment Tuesday
During the root canal treatment the dentist found that someone had previously tried to do a root canal and had only done 1 canal and that he found another 2 canals filled with black stuff (infection). I had only ever had root canal treatment done at their clinic -but over time dentists have changed. He cleaned out and finished the whole treatment in one visit (about 50 minutes). He took small x-ray before and after and says they were fine. Later that same afternoon after the anaesthetic wore off I started to experience mild pain in the tooth -which i knew is normal so took painkillers of Ibuprofen and paracetamol. however by evening the pain was getting worse.

Day 2 -Wed
I continued with the painkillers but by evening the pain had become moderate to extreme at times. In the night it was unbearable and I could hardly sleep, so the next morning I planned to contact the clinic.

Day 3 -Thurs
Contacted clinic for emergency appointment -dentist saw me and said it must be some infection and prescribed me 250mg erythromycin. At this time there was slight swelling around the area it looked red and the tooth itself was sensitive to touch and painful all the time without touch.

I started the course immediately with painkillers of Ibuprofen (nurofen express -liquid capsules 200mg -400mg) with paracetamol in between at the suggested intervals. I even took diclofenac as well when the others were not having effect -still no help. However, by evening again the pain this time was UNBEARABLE. I could not sleep throughout the night it was so bad and nothing seemed to help me. I looked into my mouth and noticed my gums had swollen even more and this was actually more visible after the pre-molar tooth he treated -the swelling was actually far greater on where the wisdom tooth is supposed to be rather than this pre-molar tooth. I do not have a fully grown wisdom tooth but just a tiny growth of where the wisdom tooth should appear -the wisdom tooth growth that appeared a few years ago will never grow into a tooth, but after this root canal on pre-molar the gums are heavily swollen around and underneath and behind the pre-polar area where the wisdom tooth is. Even my face and jaw are slightly swollen and painful as I have this growing swelling to gums.
In the past when I have had tooth ache due to infection i’ve had amoxicillin or metroniodazole which usually starts to work after a day, but erythromycin was doing nothing for me -even with painkillers.

Day 4 -Fri
I contact clinic again -saw dentist -This time he could see the swelling around my wisdom tooth and he thought its a double problem,
1)one of the root canal treatment infection on the pre-molar and 2) the flaring up of gums around wisdom tooth. He prescribed me 500mg Amoxicillin plus a prescribed painkiller 30mg diydrocodeine. He asked me to continue taking the erythromycin 250mg too.

I think both the incidents are related and not separate.

Initially the pain killer seemed to give some temporary relief in that the pain was reduced from the severe unbearable to just about bearable pain. but after 3 hours I was in agony again and the swelling was just the same and my whole right side jaw painful and slight swelling to face. I carried on with the antibiotics and painkillers throughout the night.
The pain is moderate and just about bearable but there is no sign of the swelling to gums reducing and my jaw is very painful.

It’s now 3 rd day of antibiotics and 4 days since having the root canal treatment but theres no signs of the swelling to my gums reducing, jaw is painful. What can I do?
Has the root canal on pre-molar gone wrong? Were there more than 3 canals? or did he not clean them properly and infection (the black stuff he saw) not get fully removed and passed to surrounding gums. I had no pain or swelling before I had this root canal treatment.
The dental clinic is shut over weekend, opens on Monday with other dentists there as the one who did root canal will be on holiday.

What are my options? I am in moderate pain and the swelling to gums and pain to jawline does not seem to be reducing.
the gum swelling is behind the premolar tooth that had root canal (RC), i.e the swelling is where the wisdom tooth is. There is no gum swelling on tooth that had RC treatment.
Just an update as it’s been a while since I posted the question: It appears the dentist who did the root canal went in too deep, this lead to facial swelling and immense pain. Saw the dentist (another one at the same clinic as mine was on holiday) he drilled into tooth, cleaned it out (all pus, blood) and filled with temporary filling. Immediately I felt and he saw the facial swelling come down and the tooth is no longer painful. In this case no amount of antibiotics/painkillers would have worked until the tooth was drained out. No probs with wisdom teeth at all. Thanks for any reply so far.

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