First I want to say "God Bless" to anyone who reads my post.

My fear of the dentist started at a very young age. It seems like I inherented my weak teeth from my mother who has had dentures since she was in her 40's. I have always had cavities no matter how often I have brushed.

When I was about probably 11 or 12 and needing to have a cavity filled. The dentist numbed my mouth as usualy but for some reason I didn't feel like it was numb enough and told my dad. The dentist proceeded anyways and it hurt so bad I couldn't help but scream out in pain. Ever since then, I hate dentists.

I had my first root canal at the age of 29 and at the same time had my wisdom teeth pulled. my jaw hurt for weeks, but never noticed any problems afterwards.

Then I hit 38 and hadn't been to the dentist too often but started to develop an extreme tooth ache. Went to a local dentist and had to end up getting 2 root canals, but seemed to have no issues afterwards.

About a year later, I woke up for work and couldn't move my left hand. My hand was so swollen that my fingers looked like hotdogs. Being the man I am, I didn't immediately go to the doctor. The swelling went away after about 3 days. Unfortunately, a couple of weeks later the swelling returned and kept going away and returning again every week.

I finally went to the doctor and was told that I had the "markers" for Rheumatoid Arthritis and have been on medication ever since. Does really nothing except managing the symptoms.

In the 9 years that have followed, I have had many weird things happen to my body. Along with left jawline, I've had swelling that looks like I have a golf ball in my mouth. I can feel I tingling in my jaw whenever it comes on. Went to an ENT had MRI's, CT scan and radioactive fluid injected under the tongue so they could follow the liquid through the canals to see if I had any stones, but nothing.

I'm also experiencing numbness in my eyelids, lips, cheeks and tongue. Again, multiple MRI's camera stuck down my throat twice to look at my hear and still nothing.

Of course, every time I search for things related to my symptoms, I get Lyme Disease results. Kind of made sense since I wqas always an outdoors person and have had mltiple tick bites and have even had a bullseye rash that I remember. Afer a couple of years of thinking that was the answer, I finally went to a specialist in Columbia Missouri thinking that I would finally find out what is wrong with me. I had pay for it out of my own pocket since my he wasn't covered my insurance plan. $1,500 later after the test came, I was thoroughly disaapointed to find out that I probably didn't have Lyme Disease.

I remember a question that the doctor asked during our initial meeting. "Have you ever had a root canal?" He said that they can cause many of the same symptoms.

That brings me to this forum. If you've made it this far, has anyone ever heard of similar symptoms to mine being caused by root canals?

By the way, my username comes from the fact that the numbness in my face make me feel like I am wearing a mask. I cannot smile and feel like a monster of some kind.

Again, thank you and God Bless.