I’ve had extractions for an absessed tooth and one wisdom tooth and then an extraction for the remaining three wisdom teeth. It didn’t hurt-I was put under. IV and everything. Ick. But not painful.
My root canal was easy-except they use those rubber dams which I always fucking gag on. However, my tooth was fine-I need two more root canals.
Don’t get it pulled-it will cost you more in the long run, as my dentist explained that I have to have a bridge put in because now my top teeth will eventually grow down into the empty space. Plus, it HURTS chewing on an empty space.
Upper plate,left side,rear. Called today, appointment on Wednesday. Never had much in the way of Dental problems,first cavity at 21. Truth be told I am very lax in my dental hygene. Learning from my mistakes. MTS
well, I survived. some aching in the bottom jaw, below the upper tooth that got rooted - I think just from the effort the dentist put into the process (it’s a back tooth, so he found it a bit awkward to do.)
back in a week’s time for a check up and permanent filling.
I spent nearly three and a half hours in the chair this morning. Almost three hours two Fridays ago. And that was just preparing the other teeth for the inevitable. Sucks.
Luckily the dentist is a good friend of mine- READ- Serious gas and injections to the point of babbling.
I haven’t seen a dentist for a good cleaning in years. I’m paying for it BIG-TIME now. I actually asked him about, and am interested in, flossing for the first time in my life.
The other bitch about it is being somewhat embarrassed at the condition they must have been in. I mean, they LOOKED allright to me. I brushed twice daily. Apparently I was wrong.
I actually thought about seeing a different dentist so I could avoid the embarrassment I knew I was going to feel- Kinda like the ‘I need to clean before the maid shows up’ syndrome.
I feel your pain pal. I’ll be feeling it literally next Friday. Look for a thread in the pit on what all is pissing me off that day.
Today I was supposed to have three fillings. While she was in there, she said “Oooohhh…I have a cancellation. Would you like me to start on that crown back there also?” So I said, sure, why not, it’s gonna have to be done anyways.
Then, 20 minutes later, she said “Oooooohhh…I have another cancellation. Would you like me to do those 2 root canals we planned for two weeks from now?” So I checked my watch, and said “Sure.”
Then, a long while later, she said “Well, the tooth with the crown, it has a bad root. I need to do a root canal right now, I can’t send you home like this.” So I said “Uhhh…OK.”
Then, 40 minutes later, I asked if she could take a look at the piece of bone sticking out of my gum from the last extraction. She said “Oh, that will have to come out NOW.” And then she proceded to take this little hammer and go WHAP! WHAP! WHAP! until the little spikes of bone snapped off, then she dug into the gum with her forceps and retrieved 3 pieces of white bone.
So overall, I went in for three fillings, and came out with 3 fillings, 3 root canal starts, 1 crown start, and some jaw work. About $700.
Then I went back to work for 5 hours. No painkiller. Hah!
Before my friend could tell his secretary otherwise, she mailed me a full fledged bill for my deep cleaning appointments (He and I have a deal that I basically pay for costs and repay him with computer help and whatnot).
Anyrate, the un-reduced bill shows up and it’s billed at $850.00 to date. That’s $850.00 for what essentially works out to a deep cleaning.
That’s not including the four wisdom teeth prepped and ready for extraction, the replacement of two front fake teeth (One from a champagne bottle that smacked me on New Year’s Eve, the other a result of a hockey mishap) that have remained a year after their replacement date, and a whitening procedure on my front upper and lower teeth.
You know, I’m sitting here, with no need for painkillers anymore, and the antibiotics done, and no pain in my jaw for the first time since don’t know when, and I’m thinking, “boy, poor Anthracite and CNote.”
Jeeeeze…it sure does. But I looked closer at the bill, and found out I had about a $500 credit from an insurance payment, so the real bill was about $1200.
And guess what? Here is my schedule for this next week:
Monday - 2 root canals (that’s right - 2 different, new root canals)
Tuesday - Wisdom teeth out.
Wednesday - lecture for 4 hours, with my mouth packed with cotton.
My root canal wasn’t that bad. I think it depends a lot on your dentist. My dentist is wonderful, because she’s so solicitous and sensitive about causing pain. She never wants to hurt anyone, so she’s real careful and apologetic.
I suppose if you had The 3 Stooges or Adam Sandler hammering away in there, a simple cleaning could be agonizing and disfiguring.
I also had all four of my wisdom teeth pulled at once (actually, since they were incredibly impacted, it was surgery, not just extraction). I had almost no bruising, absolutely no swelling, and I even felt well enough to go out that same night.
well, I’m back from getting the permanent filling in, and aside from a bit of soreness in the jaw from all that poking around (and a bill for $495), I’m in good shape!
I must add my two cents to this discussion. Had an abcessed tooth several years ago, the most severe pain I ever had and that includes childbirth. I had to go in for, I think ,three separate appointment of an hour or more each. I had Novacaine only, I never had gas or valium or anything else. Much busy work, dental dams and all, had to keep my jaws pried apart for what seemed hours. This summer they decided I needed a root canal in a molar, so I went to the root canal specialist. More Novacaine, but whatever he did took about half an hour, if that, and cost me $850. Now I have to have a crown put on by my regular dentist, but I’ve been putting it off. His office left a message on the answering machine saying they know I’m trying to avoid them, how embarrassing! The longer I wait the more embarrassed I am.
I went to the dentist for my check-up. I now have four appointments to have the roots on either side of my mouth scraped, a referral to the oral surgeon for possible jaw surgery, and a referral for the endodontist for God knows what.
I’m thinking positively about the possible jaw surgery. If I have to have it done, I’m thinking about going on Opti-Fast so I can lose some of this excess weight. Just making the best of a bad situation.
