So I had a root canal today, it wasn’t nearly as bad as I had anticipated, but wasn’t a walk in the park either. I wasn’t really in the mood to badger the Dr. with questions afterward.
What exactly did they do, and why did they do it?
They hollowed out the top of your tooth, then they carefully drilled down each of that tooth’s “roots.” If it was a molar (often is), there would have been three or four roots. The purpose is to remove from the nerve canal any nerve tissue and pulp on the theory that, having gotten infected once, it could get infected again, causing you the same exquisite agony that lead you to the dentist’s office in the first place. Then they filled the canal up with something that won’t rot, and probably then put in some sort of temporary filler in the top of the tooth. If the damage to the tooth from the procedure was limited enough, a filling will be sufficient; sometimes the damage is so extensive a crown is needed.
The basics are found at Wikipedia.
One of the reasons they used to be quite painful procedures is that they often were done while you were still infected; infected tissue is not as easily numbed, making the operation quite painful. Now, often they await until antibiotics have had a chance to reduce the infection, thus the local anesthesia is more likely to work.
It was some definite agony that led me to the dentist last week. My jaw was so swollen up that I couldn’t even eat. The urgent care (can’t find a dentist on a Sunday to save your life (er… tooth?)) gave me anti-biotics and vicadin.
So now that the swelling is down and they did the first (of two) I get to go back in a couple of weeks for the second. After that, I get the crown, because apparently the damage was bad (and on one I already knew that).
So all this means that I shouldn’t have an infection in that tooth again.
So a follow up question. I look and sound a LOT like my dad. I have a genetic disease that he has (skin problem Dystrophic Epidermolysis Bullosa). Will my teeth tend to be like his, in that no matter how often he goes to the dentist, or how much effort he puts into brushing and flossing he still has problems? (7 root canals and 5 crowns to date?)
What a coincidence, I just had a root canal meself.
It really wasn’t a big deal; there wasn’t a horrid infection, just a little one, inside cracked filling and not much tooth remaining to recreate said filling. So, they rooted it out, filled it in, gave me a scrip for penicillin, and off I went. On Thursday I returned for the temporary crown and fitting for the permanent one; that gets installed on the 15th.
On the whole, it really wasn’t so bad. I was, of course, quite numb, and the shots were the worst part of it, but my dentist is great at giving shots, so even that wasn’t too bad. It was time-consuming and really boring, and I got to know my dentist’s armpit really well.
Also, to let you know what my dentist is like, and I swear I Am Not Making This Up: while he was doing my root canal, he talked about the movie Marathon Man. What a card.
I remember as a child seeing innumerable references on sitcoms, in comic strips, and in magazines and books about an adult nearly prostrate with pain over having had a root canal. My mother and her friends would speak with absolute horror over the horrendous pain that a root canal was, and say things like “…and she had a root canal, and had to take off a week of work and couldn’t get out of bed…”
Then I had 12 root canals (could be more, I lost count!), in one case 3 teeth at one time, and none of them hurt one bit more than a standard filling. When I tell a lot of people about that, they act like they’re honestly going to pass out just imagining it.
I’m wondering if the technique has changed enough over time since the 1970’s/80’s that it’s a lot easier?
I don’t know Una, but except for hitting one nerve that apparently didn’t get hit with enough novacaine, it was pretty easy.
I wish I could afford to do both at once, and then the crowns a couple of weeks after, but the dental ins. caps out a 2k a year… I’m sure you know how much that will cover :rolleyes:. So I guess I’ll do the caps next year. Plus I’ll be able to put a little more into an FSA account and do it tax free.
I would imagine part of it is that the equipment is more precise, likely smaller and more flexible endofiles. Also, as I noted in my post, the general procedure now is to wait for the infection to reduce before doing the root canal. There is a considerable difference between the pain infected or swollen tissue suffers and the pain unaffected tissue suffers, even on local anesthesia.
I had a root canal years ago, and I don’t remember it being particularly painful, just taking longer than any other dental work, and subsequently more expensive. The strangest thing about it was that the nerves were removed during the first visit, and when the dentist was working on the tooth during the second visit he didn’t bother giving me a shot; since there was no nerve I didn’t feel a thing as he was drilling out more of the tooth to make room for the crown.
Not necessarily. I had a particularly complicated root canal on a front tooth (tooth has a history of problems stemming from an accident when I was young). I was warned that I might experience an abcess anywhere from a month to five years in the future. Didn’t happen right away, so I forgot about it. Two years later, I did have an abcess in that area. It hurt like Satan himself was dancing on my tooth, but antibiotics and Vicodin took care of the problem, and it’s been fine since.
I don’t know what caused the abcess, or if it was only likely because of the complications with that particular tooth, but it is possible that something can get infected in a tooth upon which a root canal has been performed. If it worries you, ask your dentist.
I had a root canal when I was a student in the 70’s (at Manchester Dental Hospital 'cos I didn’t have a local dentist) and it hurt like hell. I’ve had one other since and, although it wasn’t pleasant, it wasn’t that bad. Not sure is technique has changed or if the idiot dentist in the hospital just didn’t wait long enough for the local to take affect. Maybe he just wanted to give the dental students - all standing round watching - a laugh as I was scraped off the ceiling.
My present dentist, both when doing the recent root canal and when redoing the original one, made a point of ensuring that the filling completely occupies the hollowed out space as, apparently, any gap can significantly increase the chance of infection.
I had to have 4 root canals last year, one of which had to be done by a dentist that specialized in endodontics due to the root in one of my teeth being so oddly shaped and almost vanishing at one point. Both of my dentists are wonderful guys, generous with the anesthesia and great at their jobs.
I believe that the reason root canals aren’t so horrible any more is due to better anesthesia plus new techniques.
I made a comment earlier up the thread about the cost, but with my insurance, I was pleasantly suprised by how cheap, or rather not as expensive, it was for me. The procedure took probably 2 hours total for them, they used supplies, took some x-rays (before and after) and everything else that goes with it.
Came to just under $250.
So while I love to complain, without the insurance I don’t know what it would have been.
I effing LOVED my root canal experience. I think it’s so amazing that they can file out roots way into your jaw and then pack it with anti-germ stuff. The dentist even commented that I had “the longest roots I’ve ever seen.”
You know what they say about guys with long root canals… 
FWIW all 12 of mine weren’t covered by insurance, and the cost was $1000 each. Not terribly outrageous, but not cheap.
Dang, Una, I didn’t catch if that was all at once? For a cash payment, I’m sure there’d be room to negotiate for twelve root canals.
Oh, yeah, I’ve got to imagine that was an endodontist and not a GP?
It was spread out over about 18 months, and it was with, reputedly, the best root canal person in the entire metro area. Hey, if I was paying for it myself, then why not…