Several years ago on a trip to France, I started having minor toothaches in the upper right portion of my mouth. I took Tylenol at first, and that dulled the pain for a while. The toothaches gradually became more severe, and even though I doubled the dosage of painkiller, it got so bad that I could not sleep at night.

I finally asked our hotel to contact a local French dentist and schedule an appointment with him. The dentist took X-rays and examined my teeth, and he tried to identify which tooth was the culprit in order to diagnose the problem. He tapped on several of my teeth, and each time asked if the pain became worse. As much as I wanted to cooperate and pinpoint the source of the pain, I could not help him identify the exact tooth that was the source of my discomfort. The X-rays did not signal any problem either, so the dentist told me he could not do anything more with my teeth. He prescribed large ibuprofen tablets for pain. I called them “horse pills", and he told me to take those until I returned home and could see my normal dentist. Unfortunately the “horse pills" made me violently sick to my stomach, and I’m not sure which was worse, the disease or the cure. It should also be pointed out as a matter of side interest that I had to pay in cash for the visit, and the price was 20 euros, or about $25 U.S. at the time, which included the X-rays. That amount was less than the co-payment required by my medical insurance coverage at home in the U.S.

The tooth pain did eventually subside, however, as did the upset stomach, and by the time I saw my dentist at home in the U.S., I was feeling well. He made an examination of my teeth, and also took more X-rays. He showed these to me, and I was quite surprised to see that the roots of several of my upper teeth were clearly visible inside my sinus cavity, which he pointed out was rather large. He eventually concluded that the problem had been an infection of the sinus, and not a tooth problem.

I’ve had many sinus infections over the years and have suffered through two painful sinus operations. This was the only time that an infection of the sinus affected me in this way. I did not have the normal deep headaches, runny nose and eyes, and nasal congestion, as was always the case in the past. This time, and this time only, the only symptom was the toothache. So it is apparent that an infection of the sinus can manifest itself in several ways, and sinus sufferers should be aware of this.