During my last 3 dives over 7 days in March, I had dental pain for about 4 hrs, starting about 5 hrs after each dive. My dentist said all appeared well, and options were an anti inflammatory medication before the dive or a root canal. The latter seems too much given the tooth is healthy by the dentist's assessment. I plan to take an ibuprofen as plan A if the pain returns when I dive again in January. The pain is a tooth in the middle of the lower jaw that has a deep filling, but one I had dove problem free with many times. Am I destined for a root canal, or have others had such pain dissappear from a seasonal break from diving?
Tooth Pain
- Thread starter Greg Gage
- Start date
Please register or login
Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.
Benefits of registering include
- Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
- A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
- You can make this box go away
Waterwulf
Contributor
I had a tooth cause problems surfacing from a dive to 100+ feet. The pain started at about 80 feet and got worse as I ascended. At 40 feet, I gave up and went back down to start over. It was no better and I finally decided to just do it. At about 30 feet, there was a loud crack and I had some debris in my mouth but the pain was gone, thank the Dive Gods. My Dentist said it was a filling that blew out. Pressure got in but couldn't get out so it blew the top off.
Check with an ENT doctor. I had the same thing happen and it was a blocked maxillary sinus. I had surgery to clear out all of my sinuses and no more problems, I can breathe better and sleep better.
tooth squeeze is the worst.
jmark18
Contributor
As the pain was in the lower jaw it could not be a sinus issue
Waterwulf
Contributor
I dove one time with a cold. Yeah, bad idea and I paid for it. On the way up to the boat, I started to experience pain my sinuses. it was like a knife was stabbing me in the forehead. It was awful and it got worse as I got closure to the surface. I tried to go down and start over but it kept being really bad. The pain behind my eyes was frightening. I had to surface though so i just went for it. My partner knew I was in trouble (slate writing) so she was right there in front of me as I hit the surface.
Just before I reached the surface when the pain was it's worst, I heard the horrible sound of my eyeballs vomiting out into my mask and my vision went black. I knew my eyeballs were dangling in my mask. On the surface, my friggin' partner was screaming at me to let go of my mask because I was holding it tight to my face in case the Doctors could reinsert my eyeballs. I was terrified of loosing them in the ocean if I took my mask off.
Finally, she was able to knock my mask loose. Glory Be! I could see but everything was kind of green. Obviously, my eyeballs were dangling on the ends of their nerves and hanging down on my cheeks so they're looking underwater. "Now rinse the disgusting thing out and wash your face" she was shouting at me. Huh? My eyeballs hadn't popped out after all. My mask contained about a quart of green snot and my sinuses were never clearer before or since then. Don't dive with tooth or sinus problems!
Just before I reached the surface when the pain was it's worst, I heard the horrible sound of my eyeballs vomiting out into my mask and my vision went black. I knew my eyeballs were dangling in my mask. On the surface, my friggin' partner was screaming at me to let go of my mask because I was holding it tight to my face in case the Doctors could reinsert my eyeballs. I was terrified of loosing them in the ocean if I took my mask off.
Finally, she was able to knock my mask loose. Glory Be! I could see but everything was kind of green. Obviously, my eyeballs were dangling on the ends of their nerves and hanging down on my cheeks so they're looking underwater. "Now rinse the disgusting thing out and wash your face" she was shouting at me. Huh? My eyeballs hadn't popped out after all. My mask contained about a quart of green snot and my sinuses were never clearer before or since then. Don't dive with tooth or sinus problems!
It sounds like barodontalgia (tooth squeeze) but it's very atypical for the symptoms to start five hours after a dive. Normally you'd feel it right away during a pressure change. Did the dentist take x-rays of the tooth and jaw area? If the tooth is healthy, what makes root canal an option?
Best regards,
DDM
Similar threads
