Orofacial pain / toothaches with no dental origin / headaches

Posted by plo99ca @plo99ca, Feb 21, 2023

I've been dealing with ongoing orofacial pain issues for a few years. After many dental problems when I was younger, I ended up having multiple dental surgeries (root canals, extractions, and a few implants). I have now developed what seems to be a chronic pain syndrome which feels like a dull toothache in my upper left jaw. My other symptoms are intermittent dull headaches, and occasional face/scalp numbness & tingling on left side. I am also grinding my teeth at night and am now wearing a night guard for that. I've seen many docs including dentists, endodontists, periodontists, 2 neurologists and 1 ear-nose-throat doctor... none of them have been able to locate the specific cause but the consensus seems to be that I have some sort of neuralgia/nerve damage from all the dental work. I had a CT scan recently which revealed no major issues. I am also finally getting an MRI (with contrast) next week, hopefully that sheds some light on this. The pain can be debilitating at times and frequently keeps me from enjoying time with family and friends. I'm a 60 year old male who has always been in very good health. My doc has prescribed amitriptyline which I am starting this week to hopefully address the pain. Anyone else experiencing something like this?

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plo99ca | @plo99ca | May 9 4:07pm

In reply to @nrd1 "@plo99ca So do you believe it was sinus infection or misfiring pain signals causing you pain?" + (show)

I definitely had sinusitis which caused a very uncomfortable pressure in my face, headaches, and jaw pain (which felt like dental pain but more in the cheekbone). That all eventually resolved after a few weeks of strong antibiotics. During that time, they found that I was low in B12 so I started B12 supplements. The confusing thing still, is that I have frequent tooth pain issues that seem to move around my mouth and rarely show clinical reasons for the pain (ie. xrays show normal) but it feels like I need a root canal. Many of the docs I have seen think it is misfiring pain signals (which I later learned is called neuroplastic pain). One of the more helpful ENT docs suggested that it is likely that there were multiple issues going on at once, which makes diagnosing very challenging. The added frustration is that doctors and dentists seem to all work in individual silos, I believe they are well-meaning but not really trained much in how their speciality might impact another condition.