Great start to the year, laid low by a respiratory infection last week and severe tooth pain started last Friday. COVID test was negative.
My prior dentist was a quack it seems, so new dental office closer to home.
It’s the worst… I had a root canal a few years ago…I apparently have the deepest roots any dentist has seen (well, at least three who have commented on it.) and they had to drill and then send me to the xray room to get xrays to make sure they drilled deep enough…4 times. The xray room was on the other side of the building…and xrays are the worst part of the dentist for me (I choke on the film thingy and almost vomit every time)…worst experience of my life.
Last year my new dentist said it looked like it had gotten a low-level infection and needed to be redone… it went much smoother this time…even got to keep the original cap as it was able to be removed…but since it is now older and less stable they want me to get a new one which I keep putting off.
Some heartfelt advice.
I had two root canals done by regular dentists. Both were botched. Last year they had to finally pull one of the teeth. Get a Endodontist, trust me.
I hope that’s a capped tooth and not a baseball cap.
Start by asking a dentist to refer an oral surgeon for an evaluation. The dentist may advise seeing someone before or after a root canal.
My only root canal story was, I didn’t get one. But I paid for one.
I woke up one morning in the spring of 2008 with some serious tooth pain. I had no insurance. I went to the first dentist that could see me on short notice. He told me I needed a root canal or have the tooth pulled. I decided I didn’t want it pulled so I set up a payment plan and had the procedure. Paid them $200 every month for months and months. I had (and, really, still have) no idea what’s involved in a root canal so I sat there watching CNN on the screen mounted on the ceiling and let the dentist do his thing for what felt like hours.
Fast forward to December 2022. That tooth pops off one day when I’m flossing. I make an appointment with my dentist – a new, different dentist – and go in with the broken tooth in an old Tylenol bottle and he informs me that the 2008 procedure was a cap, not a root canal. He looked over the broken bit and says it’s not really a cap, just a cap-like cover made out the same stuff they make fillings out of. I have insurance now so I have the new dentist order a new cap made out of zirconia (I really, really wanted a gold tooth but he wouldn’t go for it, said it would be too obvious in my smile) and after another visit to have it attached I was back in business.
But I’m still pissed I paid out of pocket for a root canal.
This was a done by an oral surgeon or whatever they’re properly called. It went pretty smooth and hopefully in 90 minutes the numbness will wear off. Even more hopeful, the pain I was suffering will be gone.
I was extremely sensitive for the last week. Sharp shooting pain. It was brutal.
So my prior dentist had bought out the practice of the Dentist I used for 19 years. I was very happy with that dentist, but I haven’t been happy with this new guy. He put 2 caps in and both have been nothing but problems. I should have changed dentists sooner. Sometimes I can be stupid about medical stuff.
Oh. I’m so happy it’s over for you.
You will feel better.
If in a few days you feel a twinge maybe a snappy pain, go back. They’re not always perfectly aligned. If you tap it with another tooth you’ll feel it. They can fix that.
If the roots are gone(or dead, or filled whichever they call it) it will have to feel better.
There now exists a dental xray thingy that you stand in the middle of and you don’t have to have the film in your mouth.
(Only way short of anaesthesia you’re ever going to get xrays of my back teeth. Difficult to get a clear xray from somebody who’s gagging that hard. They used to use a child’s size and bend down the corners – but with the newer style the corners don’t bend.)
I’ve had five root canals (two on the same tooth), and I absolutely love them. They get a bad rap, but they’re the thing that fixes the pain, not what causes it.
I think you need to find somewhere else for root canals. An endodontist is a specialist who does root canals all day every day, and there is modern tech that makes them more precise, less uncomfortable, better outcomes. Lasers! Certainly X-rays in the same chair when necessary.
I’ve had only one, done by an endodontist, and it was absolutely painless, but that was part of the problem: the numbing agent dripped down into my throat and completely numbed it, such that I either couldn’t swallow or feel myself swallow. The entire time I was teetering on an all-out freak-out panic attack and had to keep myself convinced that I was still breathing and not choking on myself. It was brutal mentally and I still get paranoid twenty years later whenever I need some lidocaine/benzocaine/whatever for a filling when before I actually enjoyed the feeling.