Hi, I posted here about a year ago about a personal issue and the I Ching and got some great answers and advice.

Anyway, about a month ago I was told I had decay above the gumline of a tooth and needed an onlay. I had no pain and the idea made me nervous of drilling the root above the gumline but I agreed. 24 hours after drilling I had nerve pain in the tooth and having been thru this kind of thing 6 years ago with lots of problems with failed root canals that also were toxic to me I waited two days and wanted to get it extracted. I made an appointment with the oral surgeon who'd pulled my wisdom tooth 6 years earlier. To make a long story short that morning leaving the drugstore on the way to the oral surgeon I saw a small bird hit by the windshield of an oncoming car, break its neck and land in the crosswalk not far from me. I wasn't sure its neck was broken and was going to go try to pick it up but other cars began to run it over. (As someone mentioned this in itself is a changing line of a hexagram, the bird in flight meets misfortune).

I thought to myself, this is a bad omen and I should go home. But the tooth was extremely bothering me so I went to the oral surgeon anyway. He refused this time to pull a perfectly good tooth not believing I am allergic to the filling in root canals. I begged him in tears but no way so I went home, and found a dentist I didn't know in a fancy office who said she was holistic. I went there, she did pull it but apparently was pretty inept as it turns out she fractured the socket and a piece of bone also came loose AND later I had a necrotic piece of bone trying to work its way out which took a while to figure out. She also said it was bleeding excessively (probably from the fracture she did not acknowledge) and stitched it with two stitches against my will. That night I felt very frightened, sensing something was very wrong in the area, and I thought of the bird and I thought, it was an omen so I'd better take antibiotics, which I did for a solid week. I felt I was somehow saving my life (and I very rarely take antibiotics for anything).

TO make a long story short? anyway, when I went off the antibiotics, a few days later the area started to hurt tremendously, I went back on the antibiotics, in a few days it felt better, I went off, and nerve pain returned that was somewhat excruciating. Finally my friend took me to her dentist of 20 years. I also visualized my tooth socket and could see a fracture, and a diagonal piece of bone...hwich turned out to be correct, when he went in and he had to remove the bone and shave the bone clean. I then had six stitches.

Tomorrow the stitches come out. But rather than be out of pain, I periodically am having the same or similar nerve pain that is in the area and runs down my arm (sympathetic referral).

He tells me not to take antibiotics as he saw no infection. I can't tell if there is an infection and I keep worrying there is a low grade infection and wonder if I should do another week of antibiotics but they are ver yhard on my system. The nerve pain seems to rise and fall in intensity and sometimes I simply feel very sore there like someone punched me. He said the fracture exposed nerves in cortical bone and it might take time to quiet down although he admits my course is not typical.

I have been in a quandary as to the source of the pain and whether it will quiet down--is it infectious, low grade?--is it simply the fracture healing slowly/poorly AND or is it just upregulated damaged nerves that may never quiet down (my fear).

So I threw the I Ching as to how to heal it and I ended up with 51 shock and thunder! And NO CHANGING lines which really seems rather intense as a message. It almost seems like its describing the event itself--the force pushing upward, fracturing the socket. But how would you all interpret it as an answer to my question (how to heal this...)

Thanx in advance.

Hi Jenbooks I totally sympathize. I asked the Yi questions a while back about a bad root filling and it was amazingly helpful. I found an excellent orthodontist, who specializes only in root fillings and thereby avoided an extraction.
BTW he told me extractions were rarely necessary but as yet the equipment and knowledge used for the very precise cleaning of the area is not generally used yet - as he is a leader in the field.

Anyway thats enough about me !! Sounds like you've had a horrendous time. Its an interesting response you got. My gut feeling is this is going to settle down. Your system - your mouth has experienced a big shock - but 51 is telling you you are scared but actually 'nothing is spilt'. I would take this basically as 'its going to be okay'. Perhaps others might disagree, I'm not 100% certain but thats what I feel. If further remedial action were needed I just think you would have gotten a different answer, probably with moving lines - 18 for example or even 39. My own experience is that after this kind of work, around the bone in the face it takes a long long time to settle down.
Apparently this is partly because drainage from sinuses around there is very tight, so any infected matter doesn't drain away so easy (yuk, sorry) Also I was recommended to take diet supplements to help with the healing, which did seem to help. I think you can trust what this last dentist is saying, it rings true to me as I insisted I had an infection for ages and they kept saying "No you haven't it just takes a long time to settle". Turned out they were right but I found it hard to believe at the time. Compared to me you've had alot more of a 'shock' in that area with all those unfortunate complications so its likley it will take a long time to settle. Basic message of 51 - big shock - don't worry !

The bird omen was interesting, did you think of acting on it and not seeing that dentist, or were you not sure of its significance, what it meant.
I certainly think it was an omen type of occurence, but i have trouble to figure out what they tell me.

Thanx Void--how long did it take to settle? I am going in today to get my stitches out. I suppose it can't hurt for me to take a week of antibiotics like I did when the tooth was first pulled. I'm exhausted because the type of nerve pain in there really gets me agitated and stresses my system and then to sleep I use a sleeping pill and then I wake up totally groggy like a wet rag .

So how long did it take your root canal to settle? If I don't have infection, and the bone is having to knit itself and there are exposed nerves it could take a while I guess.

An odd thing was, I never drink milk, as soon as that tooth was out, before I took a cab home, the first thing I did was stop in a deli and get milk. ANd then for about 3 weeks I just drank tons of milk (organic of course). Now I no longer have a craving for milk at all. So now in retrospect I understand my body needed the calcium and growth factors to replace actual bone.

Yes, I did take the bird as an omen in two ways. First, I said to myself, I should just go home today and do this next week (and if I had I'm sure it would've all turned out okay). Second, when I got home after the extraction and I just felt something was terribly wrong, I thought of the bird as a messenger telling me I was in danger of being hit and "killed". That's why I went and took the antibiotics. I'm still convinced I avoided more serious trouble that way.

I have heard of a person getting quite a nasty bone infection from untreated root decay(it is thought possible cause). They left it too long and became very ill indeed. I didn't even know this could happen till I heard about it. So you may be right in that taking those antibiotics were so very necessary at that time. As I say mine were treated by a specialist orthodontist and took several months to really settle down. If it had not been for him I think they would have been extracted. If you live in England I could email his details to you if you get the problem again, though it is expensive.

My NHS dentist wanted to do some surgical procedure involving cutting the gum open. The treatment would have been free but I felt uneasy about it, and like you it seemed kind of important. The Yi was very insistent I did not have that treatment and it was right. I really appreciated Yi then because it was so difficult to know what to do for the best, even dentists seem to disagree amongst themselves.

I do hope it turns out okay, I know the pain can be absolutely terrible ( make sure to drink lots of water to flush out the toxins) Let us know what happens.