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Thank you everyone, your suggestion of having the tooth pulled was all I could think of as well. I didn't know that the x-ray could miss possible infection still. My mom will be 82 in February so the extraction is probably best, she won't remember what happened so that could be good.
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Judysai422 Oct 2018
My dentist said the xray does not show the infection; it shows the bone loss caused by the infection!
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I'm currently having a problem with a root canal tooth and the dentist didn't find any reason for it. Was painful, has downgraded to uncomfortable and annoying. But if I had been having pain with a tooth for as long as your mother has I would be having it removed. Perhaps a simple solution to ongoing misery. I think it would be worth doing. I wish you both the best.
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I agree, have the tooth pulled. I have a root canal right next to my sinus cavity. So I can have slight pain at times. I also had an infection that didn't show on an Xray.
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I think rocketjcat and cwillie have a good point, to extract the tooth.
You don't say how old mom is but it sounds as if she has had D/A for a while. It may be best to be without the tooth. I am mid-age and don't have dementia, but I had a root canal several years ago and I can tell you that I have had "flair-ups" where the tooth is sensitive bordering painful--then returns to normal. It seems that D/A symptoms can include hyper-sensitivity, so these combined sensitivities may be the problem. If your mom can live without the tooth, you may consider that alternative. Just be sure the extraction is done by an oral surgeon. However, she may then miss the tooth.... Good luck with whatever you decide. So difficult to know the "right" thing to do.
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My husband (no dementia) complained about molar tooth ache for quite a while, and the dentist said he needed a root canal, so he did it. The pain didn’t go away completely and still would flair up occasionally. They performed a 2nd root canal on the same tooth. Same result. Intermittent flair ups, but the X-rays still didn’t show any problems. This issue had gone for a couple of years. So they decided to pull it and do an implant. When the dentist pulled it DH heard a loud whooshing noise, and the dentist and tech said “wow!” And actually called another tech into the room to witness this mess. Huge abscess under the tooth that never showed up on any X-ray. He decided to forget about the implant. I would suggest just pulling your moms tooth.
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rocketjcat Oct 2018
One other thought... the dentist may say that the needs that tooth to chew. Baloney. DH chews just fine without it, and Mom can chew without her entire bottom plate in, if I don’t notice it’s missing.
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Christmas nearly three years ago the pain is so bad she puts up with an ER visit of six hours.

Two weeks ago, it's bad enough to get herself taken to the ER and admitted for observation.

And in between? Did it settle down? If it "grumbles" without flaring up so badly, does anything help to relieve the pain?

What does strike me is that the dentist and doctor aren't saying there's nothing wrong, they're saying they can't find it. And it wouldn't be so unusual for a troublesome nerve to be very, very difficult to get to grips with. I certainly think you should try to hide (even if you can't quite drop) your suspicion that she's making this up for attention.

What is her main doctor suggesting now as a treatment strategy?
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How widely did the dentist x-ray, did s/he look beyond the actual teeth and root? Was this an upper tooth, could it be sinus pain? Perhaps you need a referral to an ENT specialist who can look beyond the mouth for a cause.

(edit)I've been doing a little bit of reading on line - it is possible that a problem with the root canal may not be obvious in an x-ray, if the pain is intractable I'd be inclined to look into redoing the root canal or even consider an extraction.
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Judysai422 Oct 2018
I had a root canal and co ti usd to have pain. My dentist said it takes a long while for the bone to regrow and that could be the issue. However, he looked beyond that upper tooth and found a lower one that was cracked. He repaired with new filling, and guess what ... the pain vanished.
Also my MIL has a nerve in her face that gives her constant pain. Keep exploring options although it is entirely possible she is obsessing on a phantom pain due to dementia or for attention.
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