My mom has been diagnosed with Dementia and Alzheimer's as of November 2015 and all the testing results per her neurologist say the damage to her brain showing she has been having non symptom strokes for some 50 years, lots of damage.
About 2.75 years ago she had a root canal and has repeatedly complained of pain with that tooth. The dentist who performed the procedure has x-rayed numerous times = no problem. A 6 hour stay at an ER Christmas morning shortly afterwards worth the same complaint showed no problems. She sees the dentist quarterly due to bad dental hygiene (normal for Dementia patients), new dentist at current facility doesn't find any issues with root canal area.
Almost 2 weeks ago she spent days between ER and hospital observation for the same complaint and same result = no problems. I visited her yesterday and her reactions to "the pain" is so extreme the staff are telling me about it plus my witness of her reactions, I am at a loss. Everything leads me to the Dementia is distorting and escalating her reaction. Any thoughts out there? Anyone else experience this? My mom's history is that her situation needs addressing and anyone else's similar situation she lowers its importance. I am the sole person overseeing her care, my brother shows empathy but that's about it, I want to do right by her but with Dr's saying nothing is wrong has me at a loss. I appreciate any thoughts...
You don't say how old mom is but it sounds as if she has had D/A for a while. It may be best to be without the tooth. I am mid-age and don't have dementia, but I had a root canal several years ago and I can tell you that I have had "flair-ups" where the tooth is sensitive bordering painful--then returns to normal. It seems that D/A symptoms can include hyper-sensitivity, so these combined sensitivities may be the problem. If your mom can live without the tooth, you may consider that alternative. Just be sure the extraction is done by an oral surgeon. However, she may then miss the tooth.... Good luck with whatever you decide. So difficult to know the "right" thing to do.
Two weeks ago, it's bad enough to get herself taken to the ER and admitted for observation.
And in between? Did it settle down? If it "grumbles" without flaring up so badly, does anything help to relieve the pain?
What does strike me is that the dentist and doctor aren't saying there's nothing wrong, they're saying they can't find it. And it wouldn't be so unusual for a troublesome nerve to be very, very difficult to get to grips with. I certainly think you should try to hide (even if you can't quite drop) your suspicion that she's making this up for attention.
What is her main doctor suggesting now as a treatment strategy?
(edit)I've been doing a little bit of reading on line - it is possible that a problem with the root canal may not be obvious in an x-ray, if the pain is intractable I'd be inclined to look into redoing the root canal or even consider an extraction.
Also my MIL has a nerve in her face that gives her constant pain. Keep exploring options although it is entirely possible she is obsessing on a phantom pain due to dementia or for attention.