Yeah - no point in saving the tooth if the top of your head is just gonna explode.
I just had a crown done today, and had nitrous. While I got pretty anxious at first because the damn mask wasn’t producing enough air flow and I really could NOT breathe (they hadn’t started anything but the oxygen at that point), once that was sorted out and the nitrous flowed, the whole procedure was pretty tolerable. I suspect my BP was up at first but dropped once the happy gas kicked in. As I assured them several times, having the nitrous made the experience easier for EVERYONE, since I doubt they like having to work on someone who’s rigid with terror and jerks in pain every time they try anything.
The point being, if you’re anxious, then knowing there’s adequate pharmaceutical relief for that can be amazingly helpful.
Oh, crap, I forgot a vital piece of information - I’ll be having all this done with sedation, but I can’t get sedation if my blood pressure is too high. I don’t think I have high blood pressure; I think it was just from being anxious about being at the dental office. I’ll go to my doctor tomorrow and get it taken, and have a note faxed to the dentist’s office if it is close to normal.
i went for pull over re-do of root canal. turned out to be the correct decision as one of the 4 roots had a hairline break that didn’t show up on the xray, but started off one whopper of an infection and incredible swelling.
That’s the other thing - I’m on amoxicillin now for the infection in the one tooth. That makes me feel re-assured - that the infection should be pretty much cleared up before the tooth is extracted (if everything goes as planned).
Before I got put on a diuretic, I had white coat induced high blood pressure, too. And this was before dental procedures. My dentist prescribed a couple of pills, I know one was an anti-anxiety drug (Xanax) and I forget the other one to take a couple of hours before the procedure, and had me get someone to drive me to and from the office. This worked like a charm. Maybe your dentist will also do this for you.
If she’s having other sedation, they might not want to combine them.
I’ve had Halcion (also a benzo) for dental work and that plus nitrous is da bomb for making me not care what’s going on. It was glorious (as in, wonderful to have the work done and not CARE, not as in “this feels GOOD”).
Nitrous by itself is excellent, though the anti-head-asploding effects don’t kick in until you’re already in the chair, obviously.
Get some live culture yogurt, if you will eat yogurt. If you can’t stand yogurt, get some live culture tablets from the pharmacy. Most of them are kept behind the counter in the refrigerator, but you don’t need a prescription. You’ll still have the runs until you finish the amoxicillin, but they won’t be as bad, and you might be able to avert a yeast infection.
I don’t usually get the runs from an antibiotic (or if I do, it’s usually just one episode), but amoxicillin is one of those that have a very unfortunate effect on my ladybits… “twat rot”, I call it. Other antibiotics MAY have that effect, but Amoxicillin makes them look like amateurs. A week or more of misery. I was once on it for most of 2 months for sinus issues and I’d order the scrip, and a package of Monistat at the same time.
So when I went on a course of it last summer (for a flareup of that one tooth), I was fortunate enough to have a scrip for a dose of Diflucan. Didn’t take it soon enough, unfortunately…
And then at Christmastime when I had the implant placed - they had me in the chair, and an assistant brought me this cup with 4 huge capsules of the stuff. I remember saying “you wanted me to have an empty stomach - and you’re feeding me a full meal!!”. And they gave me a scrip for more of it to take for the next week or so. They seemed surprised when I insisted on a scrip for more diflucan as well. “Are you sure?” “Oh yeah. It’ll do that to me”.
Anyway - sympathies, and maybe try eating some yogurt - I don’t know if it’ll help but it probably wouldn’t hurt.
I was actually going to ask about that - I bought a bunch of Danone DanActive yogurt drink with active probiotic culture (in cranberry-raspberry flavour - it’s delicious!). The active bacteria are L. casei, it looks like. It sounds like I’ve got the right stuff - I’m figuring to drink a bottle of this stuff a day until the antibiotic is finished.
Just as a side note, not sure if it’s worth starting a new thread…how unpleasant is having a tooth pulled? I keep picturing a guy with a pair of pliers bent over the screaming patient. I’ve had a root canal but not an extraction - can anything be worse than a root canal?
I’ve had four wisdom teeth pulled, and they vary - one was difficult, with the dentist practically putting his knee on my chest for traction, and the others ones were not. I don’t recall any of them being horrible, though, and I wasn’t completely frozen for any of them. One thing I do recall, though, is to NOT LOSE THE CLOT! I got what is known as a dry socket with one (the clot falls out prematurely), and that is literally a bone-deep ache.
Well, I’ve had 5 teeth pulled (4 wisdom teeth, same day, when I was 22, and one after a failed root canal about 8 years ago).
In both cases, I had IV sedation so it was a complete nonevent :p… From what the oral surgeon said, I wouldn’t feel pain but I’d be aware of tugging and maybe hear cracking. The “hear cracking” was enough to say “put me OUT”.
I would never, EVER do either a RC or an extraction without something on board. Nitrous plus oral sedation, or IV sedation. Nobody offers IV sedation for root canals, but they do offer nitrous + oral (Valium or the like).
The root canal that I did unmedicated was pretty awful.
Bear in mind, I’m tough to anesthetise and have pretty severe dentist phobia so I’m not going to give you the best answer.
All my extractions were done with no more than Novocain on board; I was fully conscious and aware throughout, could feel the tugging and pushing, hear the crackling sound, feel the roots come free – all without pain, even during the extraction of the broken tooth that required cutting into the gum. It wasn’t a fun time but it wasn’t all that bad, and I’d not hesitate to undergo another extraction – that is to say, another extraction by this particular oral surgeon, who is super good at what she does.
IT’S OUT! I’m resting comfortably at home, eating baby food out of a jar. What a weird day. There was an issue with the roots in this new root canal tooth, too - the nerve was calcified, so they were hoping that they can just leave it alone as it is basically enclosed already. The extraction was weird - grind, crack, pressure, yank. They pulled the crown off first, but the roots came out okay too, apparently.
It’s too soon to tell yet, but fingers crossed this as done the trick.
Now, it’s important to keep up with your pain medication. The oral surgeon may well have prescribed Vicodin or the like, but there are over-the-counter preparations which a) work quite well, b) don’t have the same constipating effect of narcotics, c) do not interact in any dangerous way with the narcotics if you wish to “double up”, and d) come in a wide variety of brands and prices.
I do find, however, that unlike Advil vs. generic ibuprofen, however, cheap is not the way to go - brand name is usually better. Suggested brands include Haagen Dazs and Ben and Jerry’s. Your local “pharmacy” (DQ) may even have versions of these painkillers ready to dispense in single-serving containers; the advantage being those are easier to chew ;).
I didn’t get any prescription for pain meds; we’re doing ibuprofen and acetaminophen at home, and see how it goes. The freezing is all out and the pain is minimal; should I be expecting more pain tomorrow?