Dr. Katie ToThe Wellness Dentist, CEO and Founder of Center for Wellness Dentistry and Wellness Dentist Institute.

She Was Told to Just Live With the Pain — We Found the Real Cause

3 Aug 2026 · 1 min

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In this commentary Dr. Katie To describes a patient suffering from severe, shooting facial pain who was told by conventional doctors to manage the condition with steroids and pain medication for life. Dr. To argues that many such cases are actually caused by undiagnosed cavitations—persistent, infected voids left after wisdom‑tooth extractions—that can extend up to the ear region. These hidden infections are often missed by ENT examinations, leading to chronic fatigue and worsening symptoms over years. Dr. To explains that surgically accessing and draining the cavitation site can relieve pressure, eliminate infection, and dramatically improve the patient’s pain and fatigue, highlighting a need for targeted imaging and intervention rather than symptomatic steroid treatment.

Chapters

I just have shooting pain on my face and I have to deal with it, or they're going to give me steroid and then that's it. The doctor going to say, that's how you're going to be for the rest of your life. I have a patient like that this week, was told that nothing they can do, just going to steroid and pain medication. Again, you can see, oh, these symptoms, a lot of people have it, but nobody's scanning and checking for this. It doesn't say if you have cavitation, you're going to have chronic fatigue, but a lot of people with chronic fatigue that didn't have any cavitation proper diagnose just walking around for decades and doesn't know why they're getting worse every decade. Go to ENT, they say nothing, and people don't know it's coming from these hidden infections. Because every time we go into the cavitation where the wisdom teeth used to be, it extends all the way up close to the ear, and people can feel the relief and the pressure going away when we go in and release that infection.