#27
So yes, I had my first (and hopefully last) root canal. When I was 10 weeks pregnant I went for a dental check up and the dentist I was seeing at the time made a comment about one of the fillings he had done for me 2 years ago. He couldn’t take any X-rays of course but he said something like I would have to come back and have it looked at again. I remember when he did the filling that he had a LOT of trouble seeing it since it is the last upper molar. Anyway I had somewhat forgotten about it given what happened within the following weeks and it wasn’t until our trip to Alberta last August that it really started to hurt. In June I saw another dentist (a much better dentist, actually) and she knew something had to be done about the tooth. So I went to get the filling replaced in September and the new dentist warned me that it wasn’t looking good. In November she replaced the temp filling with a permanent filling and tried to use a pin to hold it in place but the problem was that so much of my tooth was gone at that point that the pin didn’t do it. The filling came out that week. I went back and they put another temp in and told me to get a root canal on tooth #27 (either that or take out the tooth).
So I made the appointment in January for insurance reasons and had two appointments. First I think they examined the tooth and killed the nerve and the second appointment they put supports in the canals of the tooth. The first appointment was very stressful because the endodontist had to clamp the tooth to isolate it (the tools they use are veeery small and you don’t want one of those going down your throat by accident). The only problem was that there was only 1 wall left on the tooth and he tried for about 20 minutes to clamp it without success. Finally after about the 10th different clamp he was able to isolate it well enough to do the surgery but I know they were getting ready to extract the tooth if the couldn’t get something to work. I think he had to either clamp on the gums around the tooth or way under them because it really hurt after the freezing wore off. After that the rest of the first appointment went quite well and I was quite relived how easy it seemed.
Three days later I ended up with an infection but fortunately they were able to prescribe a prescription by fax and it worked to clear it in 2 days. It was incredibly painful. So I went in for the second appointment and I realised that the first one was a cake walk to what happened in the second one. He had to put so much freezing that it actually made my left eyelid numb! I saw the X-ray afterward and it was very high up and right below my sinus cavity so it was really, really hard to reach. Anyway lots of funky stuff went on and it was pretty tense there for a bit. Afterward the assistant told me that most dentists wouldn’t have even tried given how difficult it was, so I am very, very blessed to have had such a good dentist for that part. They put in a temp filling and so far it has felt fine.
Now I am waiting for the post and crown which will cost $1300-ish dollars but unfortunately most of my dental work quota is used up so it’s going to come out of my pocket. But it’s worth it to keep the tooth!
Let this be a lesson to you all - take *very* good care of your teeth or it will hurt a lot and cost you either a tooth or lots of money (or if you are really unlucky, both). Also get yourself a good toothbrush, one of those ones that cost $6 and have the raised bristles at the end to clean behind your molars (between them and the gums at the very back) since that’s where the infection came from in the first place for my tooth. These have small heads to let you brush far back since the larger ones won’t fit there.