Hello--

12 days ago I had oral surgery to do a titanium implant.  I had a baby
molar that had no adult replacement tooth and it was finally starting
to have problems.  It had had no root for years (I'm 40) and was now
getting a gap under one edge that trapped food.

9 days after the surgery, I was still having a fair amount of pain and
described it to the doctor as a combinating of aching in the area with
feeling like I had a really bad cavity/toothache in the missing tooth
or the one behind it.  Sometimes it would feel better, but then it
would get worse again.  He banged on the tooth behind it with an
instrument to see if that was painful, which it was.  He thought it
might just be from residual inflamation and though nothing looks
infected, prescribed an additional 6 days of Amoxicillin along with
giving me a few extra pain killers.  The stitches were also removed.

Ever since that appointment, my mouth has felt consistently worse. I'm
having quite a bit of pain.  There's kind of a strong aching in the jaw
component, but the worst part is a more burning pain.  The best way I
can describe it is similar to the sort of pain you get when you have a
cavity or place at the base of your tooth where the enamel doesn't
entirely cover and you get something sweet like the center of a
chocolate covered cherry in the area.  Or maybe ice cold water on a
sensitive area like that.  This is like the pain that brings, only my
pain is constant.  Although I cringe at the thought of getting cold
liquid back there, cold liquid really doesn't bother it, neither does
warm when I rinse with warm salt water or drink warm tea.  (I've been
careful not to drink things that are too hot just because that doesn't
seem sensible with recent surgery in there.)

I don't know if it is related to the removal of the stitches, or him
banging on the next tooth, or if something is just getting worse --
everything appears fairly healed though there is still some of the
white dissolvable membrane that was stitched in down in the gap.  It
looks as though the tooth behind the opening may not have gum covering
quite up to where it did at the base of the tooth if that makes sense.
Although it may just be illusion since there's this big dent in my gum
where I'm used to having a tooth.

The only thing that really brings relief is the prescription pain
killer, but I'm trying not to take that more than once a day so I'm
just trying to tough it out.  It's just worrying me that it's not
getting better, and in fact got worse after my last appointment.

I guess what I'm looking for here is to know whether I should be
worried or not, suggestions of what I should be looking for, any
advice, etc...