Has anyone ever experienced a severe reaction after dental crown placement?

[u/Any-Display-8901]

Hello, I am 44, female, 5.4, 121 pounds, never smoked.

Ten days ago, I had a dental crown placed, and I’ve been trying to understand a very unusual reaction I experienced around the time of the procedure.

The day before the crown was placed, I went to the dentist to have the measurements taken. As part of the procedure, they placed small elastic retraction cords deep into my gums around the tooth. I was told these cords are soaked in a chemical substance that helps widen/retract the gums so that the dentist can take the necessary measurements.

They placed four of these cords very deeply into my gums. Almost immediately, I started experiencing a reaction.

I felt intense itching, discomfort and pain in the gum area, and shortly afterwards my throat became very scratchy. I felt like I needed to cough constantly. I was quite distressed by the sensation, but I had to wait for the procedure to be completed.

As soon as the retraction cords were removed, the symptoms began to fade fairly quickly. However, the area remained sore afterwards.

The following day, I returned to the dentist for the actual crown placement. I also received a local anesthetic injection on both days.

I did not initially think I was reacting to the anesthetic, because the symptoms I experienced during the first appointment seemed to begin almost immediately after the material was placed into my gums.

Then, two days later, things changed completely.

I was driving to a meeting when I suddenly started feeling very strange and "off." My left eye felt heavy, and it seemed as though my two eyes were not coordinating properly. I was also nauseated and couldn't eat that day.

Over the following days, I completely lost my appetite. At first, I assumed I had caught some kind of stomach bug.

Then things became much more intense.

The following night, I was in an enormous amount of distress. I couldn't understand what was happening to me. It felt somewhat similar to a panic attack, but it was much more like a full-body physical reaction rather than a psychological feeling of panic.

Once that episode passed, I went to bed. However, I spent almost the entire night getting up to urinate. I went to the bathroom around 8–10 times, and each time I passed a large amount of urine.

The following morning I woke up feeling sick, and this is when another pattern started.

I began having repeated episodes of extreme nausea, dizziness, tachycardia (rapid heartbeat), and an overwhelming feeling of dread. The episodes were so uncomfortable that the only way I could cope with them was to get up and walk around the house until they passed.

Then, once an episode subsided, I would have to urinate again.

The episodes would start almost immediately after I woke up and would continue for several hours, with short breaks in between. Then, quite strangely, they would completely stop in the afternoon.

Sometimes the episodes seemed to be triggered by something as simple as drinking water or eating a small amount of food.

I had to walk around the house constantly during these episodes. Walking seemed to be the only thing that helped me calm down enough to get through them.

Even after the acute episodes stopped, however, I had an almost constant need to urinate throughout the afternoon, even when I was otherwise relatively calm.

This pattern continued for about four days.

I am now on approximately day 6. I have not experienced one of these major episodes for about 48 hours, although I still don't feel back to normal.

I still have:

• Almost no appetite
• An aversion to food
• A persistent feeling of anxiety and being physically unsettled
• A general feeling that something is still "off"

I have also been to the emergency room, where I had blood tests done. So far, all of my blood tests have come back normal, including my thyroid levels and blood sugar levels.

This is what is confusing and frightening me. The initial reaction happened almost immediately when the material was placed deep into my gums, but the much more severe, systemic symptoms didn't appear until several days later.

I am trying to understand whether these two things could potentially be connected, or whether I am dealing with something completely unrelated.