tooth sore and earache a month after filling normal?

Well i would say your dentist f**ked up just like mine did.
I went to replace a filling of a molar because it was old and broken, and the dentist cleaned out the tooth from caries and prepared it for a new filling. The problem was you could see the pink pulp (the inside of the tooth) through the dentin, because the caries had destroyed most of the tooth. It was painful because the drill came very close to the sensitive pulp then i had it filled.
What happened is - 1 month later i woke up at night with excruciating pain in that tooth. The caries had broken through the thin dentin layer and had attacked the pulp, which means that either the dentist didn't clean out all of the advancing caries or during the filling the inside was contaminated with either saliva or bacterias (the last one is my explanation of things).
I don't recall mine being sensitive to cold or hot but the reason for getting extreme pain at night while you're lying down is because the blood pressure concentrates in the head.
"A spontaneous pain during the night strongly points to an irreversibly inflamed or infected dental pulp."
I couldn't have said it better.
If you say that the pain is now gone though, beware that it most certainly will return very soon, because after i had my filling done i've had my moments where it was painful then it stopped and after a month later the following happened.
So here i am back at the dentist with a terrible toothache. She didn't think too much, opened the tooth and proceeded with a root canal treatment. Nothing else could be done at that point (unless you prefer extraction). I didn't want a root canal either but it had to be done, what's more important is who does it. I'm sorry that i let her do it because i just had a panoramic x-ray done which showed that the root canals of the tooth weren't properly filled and that's causing trouble now. I won't go into detail now but if you had let a tooth decay as much that it needs root canal then you must seriously reconsider your oral hygiene and above everything choose the best specialist to do it properly. Don't be too afraid if it comes to it, they will certainly have you under local anaesthesia.

Now about the biting and ear pain.
I've been getting an unpleasant feeling in another area, when i bite or apply pressure on one of my teeth.
The weird thing is i experienced weird ear pain/discomfort just before that happened. Now the ear discomfort is gone, i don't know if it was related but that sort of pain usually indicates melting of the inner bone, which holds your jaw together and keeps your teeth in place. Basically, it could be a sign of periodontitis and i'm looking into it now because it's so threatening
If your bite isn't good and some of your teeth are crooked then you must take action now, because the pain is most likely to be caused by pressure which some of the teeth can't handle on their own!

Actually i posted a thread a few days ago with my problems so you can look into it and see how similar your problems are to mine.

Thanks for your reply. I am going to meet the dentist on Monday. I want to ask her to do x-ray for me. Do you think that will help finding what is really going on with that tooth?

You should definitely have an x-ray done. Just make sure you get a high quality image of your x-ray. If your problem is visible on the x-ray then that would definitely help. If you feel you might have other problematic areas in your mouth then ask for a panoramic x-ray, which would be better because it would capture not just one tooth, but your entire jaw and bone.

Tina, if it's not too late read my latest post (about root canals):


I recently discovered that there are better alternatives to root canal. I have root canal and i regret it. Unfortunately dentistry is all about aesthetics and "drill, fill and bill" nowadays so you need to find a specialist who actually cares about your oral health.

Root canals don't last long, even at the best case scenario when your RC has been done properly you'd still have a dead tooth which will need to be extracted at some point of your life. There are many negatives to root canals and why they always eventually fail, please research them. So the best option is to avoid caries developing on and in your teeth.

Your teeth are supposed to last your entire life, so if you are going to get a root canal done at least find a specialist who works with the alternative filling material - Endocal. Although it has it's negatives too it might at least last a bit longer and prevent an infection in your dead tooth, whereas the commercial Gutta-Percha filling doesn't have these properties and often lets germs live and multiply in your tooth.

Apparently the best alternative out there is this:

"The option is truly holistic because it takes into account your body’s natural and innate ability to
heal and regenerate injured and damaged tissue, in this case nerve tissue. This holistic, alternative option is called a “pulp cap”. Think of it as a nerve cap.

A nerve cap is a dental procedure, distinctly different from a root canal, by which a dentists seals off the injured, exposed nerve tissue with a special dental material. It functions as a permanent band aid. A nerve cap avoids a root canal, giving the protected nerve tissue the opportunity to regenerate and heal, instead of being destroyed by your dentist. A nerve cap is only possible if the nerve in your tooth is alive. Generally speaking, bleeding is a good sign that it is still alive. Once a root canal has been started, it is too late for a nerve cap.

Any dentist can perform a nerve cap and successfully seal off the injured nerve tissue, as long as the injured nerve is alive, and providing they use a special dental material called Mineral Tri Aggregate or MTA for short. A holistic dentist is more likely to be familiar with it than a conventional dentist. Mineral Tri Aggregate is essentially sterilized portland cement.
MTA works extremely well because it is sterile, bland, slightly alkaline, which promotes healing and stops bleeding, and it adheres to the tooth surface, just like portland cement sticks to hard surfaces. It even stops the pain of an injured nerve. Once the MTA has been successfully applied, a dentist can then protect it with a temporary filling, until the tooth can be properly rebuilt and restored.

The next step is for you to supply the delicate, injured nerve tissue with all the nutrient support possible."

Now that you know this research more and see what else you can find.

Finally, if you are really going for a root canal then you should preferably choose an endodontist, since they specialise in endodontic therapy which is the medical term for root canal.

Thanks for your advice. Last time the dentist said again it looks fine. She refused to do an x-ray for me, she said it could take few months to see the infection on x-ray, so there is no point to take x-ray now. Anyway, it is not ache or sore now. Hopefully the nerves settle down now.