I have visited the dentist regularly since my teenage years, so I have managed to keep my teeth, although apart from the front ones they all have fillings (some quite extensively), but I think this is common for my 50+ generation. A month and a half ago I began to feel pain, still tolerable, in a lower tooth 4 that had never been treated. A few days later, an X-ray and opening of the tooth showed that the tooth beneath the filling was already dead. The filling was already slightly chipped, but only six months earlier the dentist had said that because the damage was minor there was no point replacing it yet.
After the first visit I also took antibiotic tablets, followed by two more visits two weeks apart. At the last visit the treatment was completed and the tooth was filled. I remember feeling that one needle or file passing through the canal gave me a slight prick at the bottom of the canal, as if it had gone through it.
That same evening after the filling, the tooth seemed a little more sensitive when I was in a cold room. By the following evening the tooth clearly hurt when touched, and for the next two days I had to take Lekadol. For the last two days the tooth itself no longer hurts to touch, but the gum underneath it and the jawbone do.
Should I have another X-ray, and will the tooth need to be opened and treated again? What is the best way to make sure the tooth is preserved?