Psychosomatic tooth pain or a real problem?

question

Hello. I’m having a very difficult time differentiating between real and psychosomatic pain so I was hoping someone could tell me what is likely real or not real.

I had 4 fillings (two 5 weeks ago and two 3 weeks ago) and I’ve had significant tooth (?) pain the last two weeks.

My teeth are my biggest source of anxiety. I have had recurrent episodes of psychosomatic tooth pain, leading to multiple emergency dental appointments and dismissal when no findings emerge. Most recently, I went a couple of years without seeing a dentist as I was very suicidal and figured it would be a waste to fix any teeth. I finally went to the dentist after working on my mental health this year to find that I needed the aforementioned fillings. One she said was near needing a root canal but she filled it and checked with an x-ray after and said it looked great. But now my teeth hurt. And here’s the fun part: Two weeks ago, my dog died. A few days after that, one of my closest friends found out that her cancer was back and worse than ever. Likely terminal. My teeth have been hurting so much ever since and I can’t tell if it’s real pain and warrants another follow up, or if it’s my brain fixating on one thing due to distress over something else. I’ve been taking a ridiculous amount of Tylenol as I find it calms the anxiety. I’m just not sure what to do and I’m not sure if it’s possible she missed something or if it’s just my brain.

I have been diagnosed and treated for the following possibly relevant conditions:

OCD (not currently medicated)

Bulimia (currently in remission, with 3-5 episodes per week down from 15+ per week last year)

I think the bulimia is the root (pun intended) cause of my teeth fixation as that’s always what people tell you to watch out for, and I think the OCD makes me fixate and perform compensatory compulsive actions. Who knows, maybe this is reassurance seeking. But my teeth hurt I think and I just don’t know what to do. Historically, the pain goes away if I wait it out. But I’m not sure if this time is different as I did have a recent filing. Thank you for reading.

Posted Apr 8, 2026, 2:46 AM UTC

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