If you’ve suffered from dental nerve pain or damage during a dental procedure, you may find yourself pondering the question of how long does nerve damage take to heal. Dental nerve damage is rare but can still occur during situations involving dental negligence.
It’s difficult to state exactly how long it takes for nerve damage to heal, as every nerve injury differs. However, we aim to give you all the information you need to pursue dental nerve damage compensation in this blog. As experts in the world of dental negligence and dental injuries, our expert team has the skills needed to support you through your dental negligence claim.
If you’d like to start a dental negligence claim for nerve damage caused whilst undergoing dental treatment, our team may be able to help you.
To open your claim, please complete our online claims form or call our dento-legal experts on 0800 152 2031.
What Factors Affect Nerve Healing Time?
If your oral nerves have become damaged during dental treatment (for example, nerve inflammation during tooth extraction), the time it takes to heal can differ vastly depending on several factors:
- The nerve affected (e.g. the trigeminal, alveolar, or lingual nerve)
- The degree of nerve damage
- Whether the treatment was successful or if further procedures are required
- Other potential health conditions the patient may have
- The part of the nerve that was damaged
- The age of the patient
Younger and healthier individuals tend to face fewer issues during the healing process, as their bodies can regenerate cells much more effectively. It’s also important to note that compression nerve injuries often recover quicker than injuries involving complete severance of the nerve, as surgery may be required in the latter case.
If in doubt, you should speak to your dentist or a trained medical professional for more information about the healing process.
The Sunderland Classification System: Explained
The Sunderland Classification System was developed in 1951 and currently denotes five degrees of nerve damage – the higher the number, the worse the condition is thought to be:
- First-degree injury – Nerve damage healing time is quicker with a first-degree injury, as recovery is expected to occur between several hours and weeks. You’ll usually experience a reversible local conduction block at the injury site – however, dental surgery should not be required to heal your dental injury.
- Second-degree injury – For a second-degree nerve injury, your dental nerve damage will likely recover completely within a few months, and surgical intervention is usually not required. This type of injury is caused by a loss of continuity of the axons (electrical wires).
- Third-degree injury – With third-degree nerve damage, there will usually be damage to both the axons and their supporting structures. Recovery time is harder to determine, but third-degree injuries will often recover spontaneously within a few weeks/months, although some issues may remain.
- Fourth-degree injury – Fourth-degree peripheral nerve injuries also involve damage to the axons and supporting structures. However, they’re usually more permanent, as in these cases, there will usually be scarring that prevents nerve regeneration. Surgical intervention with nerve grafting is essential for achieving complete recovery from a fourth-degree nerve injury.
- Fifth-degree injury – Fifth-degree nerve damage is usually only found with severe stretch or laceration injuries. The only way to heal a fifth-degree nerve injury is via surgery, although in some cases, the nerve pain and damage may be permanent.
Whilst every situation is different, cases of minor damage to your nerve endings should last from a period of a few days up to several weeks. More serious situations could lead to chronic pain after dental work or permanent issues further down the line, so it’s important to speak to your dentist as soon as you recognise the symptoms of dental nerve damage.
How Long Does Nerve Damage Take to Heal?
Nerve regeneration is possible in most cases of dental nerve damage, but it can be a slow process. All nerves regenerate at the same rate (unless serious damage has occurred that makes it impossible to heal the nerve permanently).
However, the most likely nerves to be affected as a result of dental negligence are:
- The trigeminal nerve
- The alveolar nerve
In some cases, you may also find that tooth nerve damage occurs within the tooth itself, although this is much rarer.
Treatment can be accelerated by early intervention (like physical therapy or surgery), which is why it’s so important to get nerve damage after dental treatment assessed by a medical professional as soon as you notice the symptoms.
What Are the Main Signs of Nerve Regeneration?
As your nerves begin to heal, there are various sensations that you may experience, which can be similar to the symptoms of dental nerve damage itself.
Common signs of nerve regeneration include:
- Facial pain and shooting pains
- Tingling nerve endings or a pins and needles sensation
- Hypersensitivity
- Muscle weakness or twitching
You may also start to notice an improvement in your facial tone and resting symmetry, which may lead to your proper facial movements returning if they have been limited as a result of the damage. These symptoms are a sign that your body is working to reconnect and fix your damaged nerve fibres, and are an essential part of the healing process.
Whilst nerve damage can take a long time to rectify it’s important to remain patient throughout the process. Some discomfort and facial pain is expected whilst your nerves are healing, but you should start to see slow, gradual improvements as the weeks and months go by.
However, it’s essential that you speak to a dental professional or your GP to effectively manage the signs of nerve regeneration – for example, they may be able to provide the appropriate pain relief to mitigate symptoms of pain and sensitive teeth.
Seeking Compensation for Dental Nerve Damage
For patients who have been affected by dental negligence, the question of ‘how long does nerve damage take to heal’ is often filled with uncertainty. However, after reading through this blog, we hope that you now have a greater understanding of the healing process and how to proceed after your ordeal.
Facing dental negligence can be extremely stressful, but opening a dental injury claim against your dentist may help to compensate you for the trauma you’ve been through. This is where the Dental Law Partnership steps in to help – during our time in the dento-legal industry, we’ve helped thousands of people with their claims, and we hope to help thousands more!
If you’d like to see how we can help you with your dental negligence claim, please contact us here or request a callback and we’ll get the process started.