Root canal tomorrow !

[Skywalker[TSG]]

Originally posted by shahani
Root Canals are no big deal unless your roots are curved. Then it takes the dentist like a year of digging to get the nerves out.

[Jonty]

Ah amdkt7, I was under the impression that you were definetely having the root done, I mean, if it was an abscess you would not just say your tooth was bothering you! Sounds like your dentist knows what he's doing by giving antibiotics first. An abscess would show up on the X-ray and you would know about it anyway without an X-ray!! Teeth are funny things, they hurt for all manner of reasons.

Keep us updated.

[amdkt7]

I thought that I was having it done yesterday, but I guess because my symptoms were a little different he wanted to try antibiotics first.

I go back in Monday for a reqular tooth cleaning, we will decide then.

So what're you grinning about?

[SEALTEAMTHREE]

Take a tape or CD player along, when I had my root canal done, it took just under three hours. Also, they put this brace in your mouth to keep it wide open, so you jaw will be sore for about a week.

Good luck!

[amdkt7]

shahani I'm grinning because I was so happy. Give me a few more days and my mood will shift to dread

I even hate cleanings

amdkt7: You think root canals are bad, you haven't experienced a tooth implant. Here's what happens:

You have a bad tooth which can't be capped and therefore no point of doing root canaling. So they pull it out. If its a molar, needs to be replaced. Ergo an implant.

First they extract the tooth. Then after the wound heals, they drill with progressively larger drill bits right through the gums into about one inch of bone. The progressively larger drill bits do their work and soon you have like a deep gaping hole down to the bone.

Now for the fun part. They screw in a titanium thingamajig using a torque wrench to make sure it bites into the jaw bone and then they stitch the gums back. Then they send you home and ask you to return after 3 months- the time taken for the bone to grow and integrate with the thingamajig.

After 3 months, they reopen the gum, and screw on a tooth with a screw at the bottom of it. The tooth is a cap made during the 3 months. The tooth is screwed real tight, the area finished and thats that.

I got it done in 1999 and its perfect and feels like a real tooth, with no problem what so ever.

But it's good to do all this with anaesthesia- the drilling is brutal.

Hope this puts your procedure of cleaning in a proper perspective and makes you feel nice about it.

Cheers.

[amdkt7]

I had a bridge installed to bridge the gap left by a root canal job gone bad (drill broke, had to pull the tooth). Sounds like I got off light compared to a tooth implant, although the thing sometimes bothers me, food gets under it.

No, cleanings are not that bad, but I still don't like them much.

[Jonty]

So amdkt7, once the root canal is done, are you having another crown put on? Are you having to pay for this new crown or is there some sort of guarantee?

drill broke, had to pull the tooth

That must've been bad, how'd they get the drill out, when the tooth was pulled?

Shahani, that's serious dental work you had done there just think what people had to put up with in the past (like before there were proper dentists, teeth would just rot and all the consequences that involves. It must have been so painful for people. Just take an abscess for example, how would that have been dealt with hundreds of years ago?

I've never had a root canal, but it doesn't sound like much fun .. good luck with it all and, I love your avatar