…and I think I managed to put myself into twilight sleep with a combination of 1mg Xanax and laughing gas.
Of course, as a side effect, I bought shoes. And a Terry Pratchett novel. (Hey, there’s a Dansko store and a Borders between the dentist and the bus stop.)
After two days of having to take 2 Vicodin every three hours, I haven’t had to take any since this morning.
I never thought I’d be so happy to have a root canal.
(Mundane. Pointless. I share.)
I’m glad it went well. I just had my wisdom teeth out yesterday, and it’s been making me wonder about root canals… what exactly is one? For what condition would you receive a root canal? Was it terrifying beyond belief, or were you too out of it to care? I just wondered because a common phrase is, “I’d rather have a root canal than…” implying it’s a pretty awful thing. It sounds like you made it thought! Looks like we’ll be healing together!
I just had a root canal on Thursday–I got anasthetic out the wazoo, and 8 Vicodan afterwards, so I’m in no pain. ctually, I have yet to take a Vicodan (I had no pain after the Nococaine injections wore off, astonishingly), so I’ll keep them until the procedure is complete. They’re doing more root canal next week–I dont know what-all exactly they’re doing, so I’ll explain it as best I understand it. The area with all the nerves is infected and/or decayed, so he’s basically scraping out all the gunk out of the root of the tooth, which keeps the tooth anchored, and replacing it with a metal anchor and then capping the tooth on top of the metal anchor so it stays in place and looks like a real tooth. That’s as technical as I can get, and I’m sure parts of it are oversimplified or wrong.
Oh, Olives–getting the wisdom teeth extracted hurt MUCH worse than root canal–so far. Also I had a sadistic dick for a dentist whose cruel sense of humor made the process much worse. This guy seems to be a decent human being.
Most of my town’s dentists send their root canal patients to a dentist who does mostly root canals (an endodontist.) No pain, no hassle. I recommend to all of you, if your dentist says you need a root canal, ask him to send you to a specialist. Your own dentist may be competent and kind, but he’s not as good at root canals as the guy who does them all day, every day.
Root canals can be a breeze, or they can be fiery torture. It’s not a choice you want to make carelessly.
I’m really beginning to think I’m totally weird (then again…). I’ve had two root canals in my life - one by an ordinary dentist and one by an endodontist. Both hurt substantially less during the procedures than the majority of my fillings, and had no significant discomfort after.
In other messages on SDMB I’ve mentioned my wisdom tooth extraction I had a couple of months ago. Much less pain than a normal filling and no pain of any consequence afterwards (lots of bleeding, but no significant pain).
I have to get a Root Canal Tuesday the 30th. I hurt unbelievably right now, and the doctor gave me an antibiotic (Keflex), and Darvocet-N, which doesn’t help much. I have terrible times trying to eat, and even though I feel loopy, It still hurts.
I can’t imagine the procedure hurting more than the toothache. I also wish it didn’t cost almost 2000 dollars per root canal (around 900 dollars for the root canal, 900 for the crown, and a hundred or so for the build up, whatever that is).
pseudotron is correct - they basically drill through your tooth and scrape out all the dead, infected pulp on the inside (apparently mine smelled really bad). Then they pack it full of some medicated stuff and stick a temporary top on it. Then I go back in a couple of weeks and something else happens, then it’s back to my dentist for a permanent crown.
The pain really hasn’t been anything bad, and the procedure itself was fairly painless (from what I remember). I second the recommendation to go to an endodontist.
Epimethus I don’t know what’s in Darvocet or Keflex, but ask your doctor if you can take ibuprofen along with the other pain med. That’s what I was told to do, because it helps with the inflammation that’s causing part of the pain.
In my experience, root canals don’t hurt at all (with enough novacaine). And they don’t hurt in the least afterwards. It’s what makes you have to have a root canal that hurts . . .
Well, it certainly doesn’t sound pleasant. It would take a lot of courage for me. Dentists are scary. I drove myself nuts with the anxiety over the wisdom tooth extraction–the surgery was fast and painless, but today I feel pretty miserable with swelling and nausea from the anesthesia. Thank Og it only happens once per lifetime.