I had a tooth abscess earlier this year. I had it for at least two months before I knew what it was. What happened was I started to get severe head pain near my temples and the pain extended toward my teeth but the most pain was at the temple so I didn't really think it was originating from the tooth. The pain was so bad I was in the emergency area of my hospital many times over those two months. Finally my cheek ballooned from the infection and I knew the problem was a tooth. I hadn't been to the dentist in about 7 years so now i've ended up with three root canals done. Luckily my dentist is great and is very honest and has given me permanent fillings instead of crowns because crowns cost a million times more and he says they would just break anyways because I grind my teeth. He admitted a lot of dentists would try to give me crowns because it's easy money. I was surprised at how easy getting a root canal was. There was no pain during the procedure of all 3. Getting the permanent fillings in them after was more annoying though. Any annoyance of getting a root canal pales in comparison to my two months of pure abscess hell.