Irregular heartbeat after major dental work? What's the cause?
About three weeks ago I started having this strange pain on the right side of my head. Along with it I had what felt like some very odd sinus pain, constant headaches, and a sense of fatigue and extreme tiredness. For the longest time I thought I had a sinus infection as the worst of the pain, though it was slightly above my jaw, wasn't localized on a tooth. After two weeks the pain had gotten to the point where I could no longer sleep and I went to the ER to ask just what was wrong. I explained to the doctor that it didn't feel like a toothache and more like a sinus infection so he gave me Amoxicillin and sent me on my way.
The next day the pain shifted to my lower right rear molar (second molar - I had my wisdom teeth removed decades ago) that had already had a crown put on it but didn't have the roots cleared out as it didn't require it at the time of the crown's fitting. The pain became unbearable so I went into the dentist a day later and the dentist said I'll need a root canal. He packed the tooth with strong antibiotics to clean out any infection as well as having me take the Amoxicillin and scheduled me for a root canal. Luckily a cancellation occurred and I was able to be seen three days later to have the procedure done. The dentist prescribe me some Tylenol 3 with codeine for pain. I took only a few of them because they didn't appear to be working but it could have been because I was also taking Acetaminophen and Ibuprofen at regular intervals over the course of the day. Needless to day I was extremely medicated with pain killers at any given time and including opiates into the mix really started to concern me that I was taking too MANY pain killers at once, but I digress.
So the pain eventually goes away and my tooth is now fine but I now have another problem that I'm extremely worried about and that is my heart beating very irregularly and much faster than it normally does. In fact, when I was in the ER my blood pressure was higher than it normally is. Unfortunately I forget what my pulse was but I think it may have been around 80-100 beats per minutes but I honestly don't know the number.
So here I am now, more than a week after the root canal, not taking any pain killers yet my heart is still beating irregularly and there are times when I just feel extremely fatigued and without any energy. In fact, things that wouldn't normally be a problem for me now get me very winded very quickly which also causes my heart to beat faster.
Just some background on me...I have always been a high anxiety sort of person who worries about EVERYTHING. However, I've never had problems like this with my heart beating so weird and irregularly. I will admit that the tooth problem has me extremely stressed and I am sure that coupled with a lack of really good sleep didn't help out, either.
I am epileptic and take Phenytoin but I've taken that for years and it's never caused my heart to act like it does. I don't get headaches so I don't take pain killers on a regular basis. I am a little on the heavy side but that's also never given me a problem as far as heart problems go. I do have diabetes in my family as well as congestive heart failure but I don't know if CHF is hereditary though I know diabetes is. I've had gastric bypass surgery about a decade ago and I still suffer from low blood sugar attacks whenever I consume high-sugar content foods and then go without anything for a longer than normal time.
EDIT: I forgot to mention that my heart also starts beating more furiously after eating.
I do not take any drugs other than my phenytoin as previously mentioned.
I have scheduled a doctor's appointment in a few weeks regarding this but the fact that my heart's acting like this just distresses me. I don't have any chest pains or anything like that. If I was to describe how the beating feels it's like it will beat normally but then out of the blue it's like there's a few extra beats in there and it feels almost like an odd contraction of the heart muscle before it beats normally again. This happens at random intervals.
I work nights and sleep during the day so. On average I get between 5-7 hours of sleep a night. On my days off I sometimes stay awake all day so on a given I lose quite a bit of sleep and I've been doing this now for two years. I don't feel tired all the time but this heart thing is really making me worry.
Before this last round of dental pain and root canal work occurred my heart has never acted like this. Can the combination of stress, lots of painkillers, loss of sleep, and anxiety about what it the issue is be the reason for my irregular heartbeat? I'll take any advice on this because I'm running myself ragged by worrying so much about it.
Sorry for the length but thank you for reading.
Reply With Quote
