I’ve just finished my fourth root canal, still have 4 more to go. After reading a lot on the net it seems about 50-50 in terms of web sites about root canals being bad.
I have never had any pain once the canal work was started. The teeth look OK. Work OK. I got mugged and they broke 7 teeth that is what started this.
Anyway when I first got work underway I wanted them all pulled out but I couldn’t find a dentist willing to do that. Apparently the don’t pull teeth anymore. Other than the cost I seem happy with the work.
Does anyone got the real SD on root canals. Bad or not?
What do you mean by ‘bad’? Are you talking about pain-wise? I’ve had several root canals and they were basically pain-free. I couldn’t understand the big deal about it.
Maybe it depends on the dentist, rather than the procedure itself.
Markxxx, are you talking about the guy who wrote “The Great Root Canal Cover-Up”?
His thesis is that root canals don’t eliminate the infection, but rather leave traces of the infection behind in the tooth matter. He then switches topics to insist that viruses cause cancer, and that tooth infections work through the nerve endings to cause metastatic cancer. (seems to me tooth infections are bacterial, not viral, and are caused by naturally occurring beasties in your mouth)
My mother is fighting breast cancer with every homeopathic technique she can find, and she researched this sort of thing thoroughly. She went so far as to have all of her amalgalm fillings removed.
Me, I just quit drinking soda in aluminum cans. I’ll probably live long enough to get hit by a bus.
“You can’t tell me what sucks!” - Beavis, a true Objectivist
I can only talk from my experience. I had a root canal 15 yrs ago (it was painless (Thank you Dr. Duda)) and had no problems with till a few years ago I bit an unpopped popcorn seed and the tooth broke in half. 'course it didn’t hurt 'cuz there weren’t no nerves or nothing. My dentist ground it down and gave me a crown and said that happens with root canaled teeth because they weren’t gettin blood and nutrients and as a result can get brittle. My suggestion, go to a root canal specialist (Dr Duda’s in Sandusky Ohio) and just get it done.
Boris, amalgalm fillings are illegal in 49 states, but perfectly acceptable on Pluto and…oh, what IS the name of that anal planet?
Oh, you meant amalgam fillings…heavy metal! From Webster’s:
Main Entry: amal·gam
Pronunciation: &-'mal-g&m
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English amalgame, from Middle French, from Medieval Latin amalgama
Date: 15th century
1 : an alloy of mercury with another metal that is solid or liquid at room temperature according to the proportion of mercury
present and is used especially in making tooth cements
2 : a mixture of different elements
What if the hokey pokey is really what it’s all about?
I’m now on my second round of antibiotics (third, if you count the almost-fatal encounter with penicillin) for two teeth needing the RC. They had to drill into my jaw – twice – because the dentist found himself completely unable to numb the area. Great. They carve up my mouth, and send me home.
Several days later, I’m having trouble breathing and swallowing and my face is still swollen. I go into the dentist, who looks at it and tells me to go home – MISSING everything that sent me to the doctor the next morning.
So there I am at the doctor’s office being told I should have gone to the ER the day before. Apparently the carving into my face released all that fun infection into my system … infecting the bone in my jaw, causing a massive abcess in my throat, and my throat was so swollen that the doctor was half-afraid I’d stop breathing. His opinion is that all this was directly related to the dental work.
It’s been two weeks since the proceedure. I still can’t bite down on that side, my face is still puffy, I’m still on antibiotics, and my throat still aches if I miss a dose.
The dentist, who now thinks I’m a pain in the ass, refuses to deal with me anymore and has referred me to a “specialist” because he screwed up the root canals and couldn’t fix it – while keeping the thousand dollars already paid for the crowns I’m not going to get. I’m sending the husband who is infinitely scarier and meaner than I am in to deal with them tomorrow – with my lawyer’s phone number programmed into his cellphone.
I’m VERY rapidly losing faith in the “saving grace” of a root canal.
Well, I can well sympathize with the last poster, but it is my fate that MDs do me dirt and act stupid, inept and rotten to the core, while I’ve almost always had good luck with DDSs.
I’ve had 3 root canals in the last couple of years. No sweat, no problemas.
I’ve had two sets of root canal treatment, the first was in 1991, it was relativly painless, though no fun. When a tooth is treated and the root is extracted it becomes brittle over time, to prevent this it ought to be capped, and of course it is better to do this right after the canal treatment, rather than waiting until a part of the tooth has broken off, leaving less foundation for the cap. I am in the process of getting the second treatment and it is really unpleasant. I spend every evening after the treatment swallowing aspirin, though by the next day it has settled down. My 2 cents worth.
I started a root canal in April. They put the putty in,but I haven’t gone back yet to get it filled perm. I’m not able to get a crown,which is really stupid,but. I’m amazed that its held up so long.I don’t eat on it,but…The lousy part was not pain,there wasn’t any afterward. The problem was keeping your mouth open for an hour without closing it for even a second.
Actually, as the recipient of two of the things in the last year (my fault, I drink too much cola), I know a bit about this, though probably an endontist could do a better job than any of us answering.
The first key to a root canal is it should be done AFTER the infection is treated and ended. This does two things, I was told: 1) reduces the pain of the procedure (swollen infected tissues often feel pain even when ‘numbed’, and 2) reduce the chance of secondary or spread infections.
The second key is to have it done by a dentist who actually treats you like a human being. My suggestion is to have a pre-procedure visit to the dentist. I avoided a real jerk that way, and ended up with a much better result, I am certain, on one of the RC’s. A good endontist, btw, will discuss the pros and cons of a root canal, and won’t push the procedure.
As for the oncology stuff, why not ask an oncologist to see if that is true?
I had a root canal done about two years back and never got the tooth capped like I should have. Now the back half has broken off and I’m regretting it. What’s worse is that my top back molar is hurting like… well, a clever analogy escapes me, but it hurts a lot. And I need to get it extracted because it’s too far gone to bother saving. And I need to get an oral surgen to extract it because my dentist says there’s too much bone in the area for him to do it. And I have no money. Wow… what a bad week
Anyway, if you get an RC done, get it capped. Take it from your ole pal, Gummy Jophiel.
“I guess it is possible for one person to make a difference, although most of the time they probably shouldn’t.”
