Can anyone help, please? I posted in February about a “bruised tooth”,which showed no symptoms on x-ray or exam by my dentist other than being sore. The tooth is the upper front tooth. On Tuesday I had a routine checkup, and told the dentist that the tooth was still sore, and that I had a buzzy, nervy feeling going between it and my nose. She redid the x-ray, and was puzzled to see a large dark shadow around that tooth and its neighbour. (Even to my non-medical eye, it was visible when she showed me the two x-rays side by side.) Neither teeth has any decay, neither has ever been filled, and I have no gum disease. The dentist tested both teeth with some sort of spray from a tin on a cotton bud type thing, and both were responsive to cold. The suggested treatment was root canal on both, which was booked for 24 April.

On Thursday she rang me saying she had reviewed the x-rays with a colleague, and was concerned about the unusual presentation she had seen. She said she didn’t want to go in and do RCT in case it wasn’t the teeth which was the problem, and was going to refer me to the hospital.

I am scared, in pain, and concerned that there will be a long wait - she said 2/4 months. The teeth directly underneath have been sore since Tuesday too (also no decay, never filled) whuch I initially thought was sensitivity after the scale and polish, but I am now afraid have similar infection sitting behind them. Does anyone have any experience of this sort of referral, what I can expect, and what might be causing my woes? I don’t have private medical insurance so am not in a position to pay to speed things up.

Thanks for reading if you did.