u/Weak_Marsupial_9197

26F. I had several deep fillings between January and March.

Update: I ended up going back to the ER and they admitted me overnight. The CT with contrast showed broad swelling/edema on the left side of my neck extending from my jaw to my thyroid cartilage, but no drainable abscess, no airway compromise, and only reactive lymph nodes. They’re treating me with IV antibiotics, steroids, IV fluids, and ketorolac (Toradol) for pain. Swallowing has still been difficult, but they’re monitoring me and I’m hoping the swelling starts coming down.

After two days of really bad pain radiating into my jaw and other teeth, I went to my dentist because he had warned me after my deep fillings that I could eventually need another root canal. He referred me to an endodontist. At my first appointment, he couldn’t pinpoint which tooth was causing the pain, so he wanted me to wait until it became more obvious.
The next morning I woke up and one tooth was painful to bite on or even touch. I went back, he repeated the cold test, and said the nerve was dead. He performed the root canal. After numbing my cheek twice, he had to inject anesthetic directly into the tooth because the nerve was still alive enough to feel it. That was the worst pain I’ve ever experienced, although it only lasted about five seconds.
When I got home, I expected things to start improving, but instead I started shaking uncontrollably and felt like I had the flu. I had already been dealing with episodes of a high heart rate and had told the endodontist it was elevated during the procedure. Usually my heart rate comes back down when I sit or lie down, but this time it just kept climbing. At home it was staying around 140-160 while resting and reached 188 when I stood up, so I went to the ER.
The ER kept me overnight because my heart rate would not come down. They did blood work, imaging, an EKG, and an echocardiogram. They said my heart looked healthy and believed the infection in my tooth could have been causing the tachycardia. They gave me metoprolol to lower my heart rate. Around the same time, I called my endodontist because I had developed swelling in my cheek, under my tongue, and into my neck with painful swallowing. He prescribed liquid amoxicillin.
After I started the antibiotic, my heart rate improved significantly and I haven’t needed to continue taking the metoprolol. However, I’m now about 40 hours into the amoxicillin, taking ibuprofen and Tylenol every six hours, and today the pain is still extremely severe. I’m still very swollen (it doesn’t seem worse than yesterday, but it’s definitely noticeable), my cheek is sore to the touch, swallowing is painful, and I haven’t been able to sleep because of the pain. The pain is in my neck under my tongue on the left side, the gums around my tooth, my actual tooth, my cheek and jaw.

My questions are:
Is this still within the expected range about 40 hours after starting antibiotics and having a root canal on an infected tooth?
When would you normally expect the pain and swelling to start improving?
At what point would you become concerned that the root canal has failed or the tooth needs to be extracted?
What symptoms would make you recommend returning to the ER over the holiday weekend instead of continuing to wait for the antibiotics to work?

This has honestly been one of the scariest weeks of my life, so I’m just trying to understand what is normal and what isn’t.

Just wondering if anyone has gone through something similar because I’m really struggling.

I’m 26F, I’ve had dysphagia for most of my life. At one point I spent about two years living mostly on liquids before I was eventually able to eat more normally again. Even now, I still have days or weeks where I can barely eat much.

The newest symptom that’s been ruining my life is breathing problems. It’s gotten so bad that I quit my job. The best way I can describe it is that it feels like I have to manually breathe all day. It feels like breathing takes effort and I can’t stop focusing on it. My chest feels heavy, my throat feels tight or bloated, and sometimes I feel weak, faint, and completely drained.

The weirdest part is that it feels like I’m not breathing even though I am. I’ll check my oxygen levels and they’re normal (95-99%), but I still feel like I’m not getting enough air. It’s like my body forgot how to breathe automatically and I’m stuck thinking about every single breath. It’ll feel like I’m not breathing out or in even though I am.

I also get esophageal spasms where everything tightens up and swallowing becomes really difficult. My ENT thinks I may be having laryngeal spasms too. Sometimes the breathing issues will be awful for weeks, then ease up for a little while, then come back again.

I’ve been to the ER and they’ve ruled out things like blood clots and major lung problems. Anxiety definitely makes everything worse, and I’ve started seeing a psychiatrist because of how much this has been affecting me. I’ve tried a lot of medications over the years without any luck. My psychiatrist recently prescribed mirtazapine, but I’m honestly scared to take it because I’m so focused on my symptoms already and I’m terrified of making things worse.

Ativan has helped calm me down during some of the really bad episodes, and I’ve been given a temporary prescription for clonazepam. I haven’t used it yet because of my fear of breathing getting even worse.

Right now I don’t have insurance because I recently left my job, but I do plan on following up with more doctors when I can. I’ve seen so many doctors over the years and honestly feel lost at this point.

Has anyone experienced anything like this? Especially the feeling that you’re not breathing properly even though your oxygen levels are normal? Did you ever figure out what was causing it or find something that helped?

I’m exhausted. I feel like my whole life revolves around trying to breathe and swallow normally, and I’m just really struggling right now.

(Years ago I did every test they have multiple times. Upper endoscopies, a manometry, swallow studies. They showed esophageal spasms and tortuous esophagus. They had me try several meds that didn’t help. Right now I’m on 40mg of omeprazole again, because every time I eat or drink it comes back up in my throat over and over.)