Nerves Behaving Badly.

Just a little update on the seemingly never ending saga of my teeth. . . I've still been having pretty intense pain on the lower left, with just not much luck at relief. I've had my bite adjusted several times, the dentist put on my permanent crowns hoping that it was the temps giving me trouble - nothing helped. Out of desperation, I finally called my endodontist on Thursday, hoping that maybe there was more to the root canals that he did on those teeth or SOMETHING. I was able to be seen that afternoon, and he spotted what he is confident is the problem. I have nerves growing into the bone of my jaw - towards my cheek - instead of down into my jaw - towards the floor. . . he explained that it's an anatomical anomaly - but that all of the work that has been done there has probably irritated these nerves, and now they are 'live wires'. I'm taking a decreasing dose of a steroid/anti-inflammatory in hopes that it will calm down the nerves. If it is not succesful (I really haven't had much relief yet and I'm half way done) then I'll need to have a minor surgery to remove the nerves. I am PRAYING that this will take care of this problem. I'm getting better at chewing, knowing the places that I can sneak the food that won't make me flinch, but I decided to get my teeth work done to RID myself of pain, and not exponentially add to it!! Here are a couple of pics at the Endo office. . . Vivien is pretty great when I need to bring her - this day she was watching an episode of "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse" on my IPod, and coloring in her little note book. I also tried to catch a photo of myself with my cell phone - not a great angle, but you can see the fear as I wait for the endo to palpate my poor mouth!!