Can a Root Canal Cause a Sinus Infection?

Dental procedures often produce fear and people who suffer from dental pain caused by infections and other conditions postpone or never go to the dentist, resulting in more advanced and complicated oral health problems.

What Is a Root Canal?

When a tooth is severely damaged or infected, your dentist can recommend a root canal as part of restorative dental treatment. This procedure treats the infected pulp inside a tooth, without having to remove and replace it.

With the help of local anesthesia, this procedure is almost painless. It’s more about the discomfort it can cause rather than any pain you can experience. Not treating the infection and having to put up with the pain is way more uncomfortable than going through the treatment.

Having a root canal in Oak Park also saves you from dealing with other procedures that may require tooth extraction and then replace the missing tooth. This means more visits to the doctor and of course, more money invested.

As for root canals and sinus infections, know that root canals do not cause sinus infections. What can cause sinus infection is a tooth that is infected and not treated.

How Is a Root Canal Linked to the Sinus?

Root canals themselves do not cause sinus infections. After the procedure, a patient can experience sinus infection symptoms, a condition known as sinus communication.

This occurs because the sinus lining is located very close to the root of the infected tooth. This lining is very thin and sensitive, and punctuation during the root canal intervention can happen.

The symptoms a person experiences after this are very similar to a sinus infection, which can make people think that they have one.

These symptoms include:

• Congestion
• Sinus pressure
• Sinus pain
• Runny nose
• Post-nasal drip

And while these symptoms are common for both sinus infection and sinus communication, there are others that you can experience and are related only to sinus communication. These are:

• Feeling fluid going into your nose when drinking
• Feeling air going across the socket of your tooth when you breathe

Is Sinus Communication Chronic?

Maybe you are thinking you do not want to experience this when what you actually want is to heal and save your tooth.

Do not let this determine whether you get your tooth fixed or not. Sinus communication symptoms usually go away on their own within a few days after having a root canal.

Talk to your dentist before and after getting a root canal. Do not hold back from having healthy and strong teeth.

Wesley C. Wise, DDS & Assoc., LTD, we welcome you with open arms and are ready to offer you treatment in a safe and friendly environment. We also speak Spanish and Turkish. Contact us to schedule an appointment today.