Infection or not?

[Alina D]

Hi everyone,


I have endodontically treated this upper right first molar after being told I have an infection (apparently seen by my dentist on a panoramic x ray) and the 2 x-rays here are taken right after the procedure. I had no symptoms though and I just wanted to know whether the infection is visible here or not.

 

[Busybee]

Do you have any symptoms now?

 

[honestdoc]

Cannot diagnose infection based only on x-rays. X-rays are only 2 dimensional. A tooth may have an infection and not show up on x-rays. The x-ray may have a radiolucent lesion that may be an infection previously but may be healing or just a bone scar. As long as you are having no symptoms and no swelling after a root canal you should be fine.

 

[Busybee]

But honestdoc you can understand that the OP might feel annoyed if there was no sign of infection to start with? I've been referred for rct with dubious evidence. It's one area of dentistry where you can really lose faith in the profession. You then find you didn't need RCT. In my case that's happened three times on second opinion. IMO if you don't have symptoms always get two or three opinions.

 

[MattKW]

To start an RCT usually requires more than seeing a likely infection on an OPG. The OP doesn't give us full info here that can help us. Like, what were presenting signs and symptoms? What did xrays look like beforehand? What tests did the dentist perform? An Xray presentation is only one part of a jigsaw that has to fit together to make a diagnosis, and can quite often be a false negative. And you don't need symptoms to have a reason to start an RCT - some people are surprisingly pain-free yet have obvious abscesses or deep decay.
The attached Xray shows a lady who developed a huge abscess/cyst over a period of 14 years since the arrowed tooth was chipped in a sporting accident. Only developed pain over a 2-week period.