Dentist this afternoon – root canal treatment – slightly scared!

Looking for some words of encouragement.

Slightly apprehensive. Going to get my front tooth root filled this afternoon. Dont like the dentist at the best of times and cant imagine this is going to be pleasant.

its been a long time coming, 1st damaged the tooth as a teenager diving into a swimming pool and scraped it off the bottom, various traumas over the years (getting punched) has weakened it and its been slowly dieing over the last 20 yars. Never really had any pain or discomfort from it but it is starting to darken and over the last few months the gum above it is slightly tender, hoping the dentist isnt going to find an abscess or infection.

Good thing (or bad) depending on how you look at it is that its the front top tooth (Central incisor) so fairly easy to get to, but wont be great if things go wrong.

Also not NHS so gonna be £250 for the treatment and thats before we do anything cosmetic like veneers or crowns. (prob another £400)

Am slightly nervous, mainly because of the big needle.

Yes MTFU etc etc……..

High fives root canal brother. (Got one coming up soon). Normally not bothered by dentist but I get a bit teary thinking about RC on a rear molar. 🙁

It’s not that bad. I’ve had two done, both in big old molars at the back with multiple canals. There’s no pain involved once the anaesthetic’s kicked in. It’s a bit uncomfortable and weird having someone poking and scraping about inside your teeth at first, but once you get over that it’s actually just slightly boring.

I’ve had one done, after snapping a tooth in half.

I literally didn’t feel a thing, nothing to be worried about.

mint +1

Had it done twice, both times the relief as he cut into the infected area’s was immense. It did smell very bad though.

It’s not too bad, think of it like a bigger filling. If the dentist finds a pit of infected hell underneath, he/she will probably just clean it out and get you back to finish off on another day.

Much easier than extractions, IME.

Had one done recently. Fell asleep! Really nothing to worry about…

Looking for some words of encouragement.

Relax. (theres one word for you)

And remember…

What doesn’t kill you, makes you poorer.
🙂

HTH.

Ok cool. Drying my eyes and thinking fluffy thoughts.

It is uncomfortable, I’ve had a few done.

In the end the thought/anticipation of more root work put me off going back, I always found local anaesthetics to be ineffective too.

I changed to a more sympathetic dentist on the recommendation of a friend and now have anything like this done under sedation, far more pleasant as I have no memories of recent work.

Ok – got 3 (or maybe 4) RC’s much better than extraction I can say. The best advice i can give is to repeatedly tell yourself to relax during the treatment. In my experience of which I have a lot, there is no pain just a great deal of anticpation of it, mostly what you feel is pressure being applied. The noise does not help of course.

I have had 3 big molars done and as noted above they aren’t really that painful but they can be uncomfortable.

Relaxing during the treatment is good advice. I just sit there and think about pleasant things.

Only problem I had with my last one was that for a few days afterwards the tooth had risen up slightly as the tissue underneath had been traumatised which made it really painful when biting.

I also had some yucky ulcers around the temporary crown that was put in.

It all cleared up though and I am glad I had them done rather than having extractions.

Hope it goes well for you.

Had a rear mowlar done, it wasn’t as bad as I expected.
Tell the dentist you are a right wimp, with a low pain threshold and hopefully they’ll be generous with the anaesthetic. (worked for me)

After all the drilling and grinding was out of the way it was fairly relaxed.
I had it done about 4 years ago, dentist said it might last a year, or it might last 10 years.. so far so good.

It’s the smell of burning enamel & dentine that gets me…

Can’t offer any encouragement, but this thread has definitely reminded me to floss more often 😆

I’ve had one, but the tooth was long dead so I didn’t need any anaesthetic. didn’t hurt at all, just a bit weird – your head moves as they dig around inside, it’s like being a puppet. the biggest pain was not being able to see what he was doing – sounded fascinating.
Lesson 1:
don’t pick your teeth with a pen knife kids!
Lesson 2:
don’t eat poppy seed bread

Had a root canal done 2 years back

Fell asleep, a loud snore woke me up to find the dentist and his assistant laughing their tits off at me 😀

I’ve had a couple, not pleasant I’m afraid but then I sincerely believe different people have different reactions to pain, particularly in their teeth. I’m sure it’s related to intelligence and handsomeness.

let me know how much it hurts.

Just to add balance: my first one was a horror. Anaesthetic hadn’t kicked in on the nerve that she gouged. My reaction apparently put her off doing them for all time, it did smart a bit (think Marathon Man). I think that’s very unusual though so I’m sure you’ll be OK. Subsequently had a few done by her new specialist which have been a bit uncomfortable but OK. Just expensive!

Similar senario, smashed both fronts age 12. Jaw is being drilled later this month for a titanium implant for one as dies 20 yrs ago and the root finally cracked recently. The other is alive and hanging on but needs pushing up so I have scaffolding on for a couple of years now. Not sure why i’m bothering, not like I’m that pretty anyway 🙄

Had one done as an emegency on a business trip to The Netherlands a year ago. Flew over and then on the descent got the mother of all pain in upper molar and pain radiating up into sinus up towards my eye.
Was in bits, arrived at company for a meeting had a nose bleed with so much pain.
Initial injection and then very boring. Sorted pain out. Went back to UK dentist a few weeks later and Dutch dentist had done a great job.
Good luck

Had 2 done, as per usual I pretty much nodded off at the dentist. Felt the occasional small nip but really was fine.

Initial needle into upper mouth = horrendous
Once that’s over no worries.

I’ve had two.

The first was a front upper incisor, I broke it in my early teens and had it crowned. I got an abscess under it years later, but because the tooth was long dead I didn’t feel a thing. It’d flare up and go away, and sometimes (sorry, this is gross) I could press my swollen gum and it’d ‘burst’ between tooth and gum and let all the pus out. Then it’d disappear for a month or two and I’d think it’d gone so it took me about two years to get around to seeking treatment.

When I eventually went to the dentist, he gave me two courses of antibiotics and then did a root canal. Drilled through the rear of the (capped) tooth and then up. As I said earlier, it was long dead, so didn’t even need anaesthetic. It’s as uncomfortable as you’d expect someone messing about in your mouth to be, but that’s all.

The worst thing about the whole operation though was when he opened up where the infection was; the sheer stench was like nothing I’ve ever known, just made me think of rotten decay and death. In my mouth. *boik*

He drained it all out, put in a dressing and a temporary filling, told me to come back in a week or do. The filling fell out after two days (they always do), but other than that the rest was uneventful. Went back, had it cleaned up again and filled properly. Fine ever since.

The second one was a premolar that’s more filling than tooth. About a year earlier I got the most incredible toothache, went to get it drilled and filled, and was told then that it was 50/50 whether they could save the tooth long term, but see how it goes.

He fixed the toothache but it ‘jangled’ oddly when you tapped the tooth, and it was slightly proud of how it was previously so it was the first thing that connected when I put my teeth together. Really irritating.

12 months on, I broached it again with him. He said basically we could root canal or extract. I asked if realistically there was any point in the RC and he said yes, so away we went. Much like last time, the only difference being that I needed injections this time. They smarted a bit, but only momentarily. After that it was a non-event; rummaged and scrubbed about, dressing, temp filling, come back in a few days, same old. Went back and had it finished off properly and it’s been fine ever since.

People commonly seem to thing that root canal surgery is the Big Bad of dentistry, but in my experience it’s painless and infinitely preferable to not having it.

Its horrific, the drill was agony, the dentist drilled through a nerve and hit an artery, i nearly drowned on my own blood, the fekker clamped me to the seat and stifled my screams with a rag, i passed out and awoke having been dumped out back, i crawled to safety and have since have reconstructive surgery & therapy. Good luck.

Oh – and why oh why do dentists use

instead of

its cos they wanna scare you.

I have to have root canal next week, as long as it isn’t as bad as my last visit then I’m golden – 9 words I never want to hear again “I’m just going to inject directly into the nerve”

Had wisom teeth removed. Was slightly apprehensive going to the dental hospital, where “students” would be in attendence and “helping”, but dentist put me at ease and pulled out a smallish syringe and injected the back of my jaw. While I was still able to speak, I said “that ain’t too bad…” just in time for him to reply “No, no, that is to numb it so we can inject you with this…” and he pulls out what I can only describe as a Horse Syringe, and proceeded to inject what felt like molten metal into my jaw.

Anyway, 2 teeth out later, 1 of which consisted of the Dentist having his knee on my chest and a student pulling him back – it felt like the pliers were on my jaw bone, not a tooth. I felt like I had some sort of stroke on the way home, as the whole left side of my face was numb. Sitting on the train I wondered why I was getting funny looks then caught site of my reflection – a drizzle of blood was seeping from my mouth down my chin and I couldnt feel it at all.

Next morning my pillow was soaked in blood and it resembled the Horse in bed scene from the Godfather.

Anyway, hope it all goes OK! 😀

RC completed on an upper molar a good few years ago (watch out for raspberry seeds…. the b@stards!!).

Molar was already filled; ate a raspberry and a seed got in between the amalgam & enamel, no amount of brushing would get rid of it. I eventually forgot all about it until a few days later when chewing on some gum which forced the seed further in and cracked the tooth. Like any ‘man’, I ignored it for a couple of years until it became so painful I had to resort to going to the dentist (I hadn’t been for 15 years prior on account of all dentists being Nazi’s).

The dentist said he could either remove it or perform an RC. I didn’t fancy a hole, so opted for the RC. Once I was anaesthetised, the procedure wasn’t too bad – a bit of pushing/pulling – just uncomfortable. The worst bit was having my mouth fixed open for, what seemed like, days.

Move forward 5 years and I started to suffer with absecces. Like Cougar, I managed to keep them in check by popping them. A bit gross really – especially the first time, when I did it with my tongue.

A return visit to the dentist and he confirmed that the RC had failed. Options open to me were implants/crowns costing £900+ or remove it for £60. A nano-second later, I was sent away with a course of anti-biotics and an appointment for two weeks later.

He started by numbing the whole of my head (reality was the roof of my mouth and my cheekbone) and began pulling with a series of larger and larger instruments of torture. He’d got it moving, but it wouldn’t come out. After about 25 minutes of this (no exaggeration) he x-rayed me and discovered the problem was caused by the roots being twisted and the amalgam from the RC having pushed beyond the root and keyed into my upper jaw (I found this out afterwards).

The only way to extract the tooth was to slice it into 4 quarters and pull it a root at a time. The last one (with the amalgam key) was a right b@stard and seemed to cave my head in from the inside. When he’d done, I sat up and glanced at his tray, there was a pile of bloodies steel and gore that wouldn’t look out of place in a movie. I emerged looking battered and covered in blood.

Don’t have it extracted. The RC will be fine.

Root canal treatment is painless to be frank but you will feel it a bit when the dentist clean it out but no pain. The last time I had one I felt asleep because it was soothing and relax.

You’re all bastards. The OP wants to hear nice stories about fluffy cushions and pretty dental nurses (and dentists).

EDIT: Then again, he’s already there, isn’t he? So let the gore-fest continue!

Good point about the ‘horror film’ metal syringes – what is that all about?

Actually Martin – good point, the dental nurse was very hot!

Metal syringes can be sterilised and reused, I expect…… Or just plain reused….

freddyg – that sounds like it probably should have been done in a dental hospital by an oral surgeon rather than a dental surgeon in a dentist surgery.

Glupton, you’re probably quite correct. Unfortunately, I’m not an expert in dental hygiene and trusted the bloke knew what he was doing.

I expect that when he saw the x-ray he probably thought the same – but by this time my gum was in tatters, face numb and molar very wobbly (but not going anywhere).

I had one which went wrong , (infection) and had to have an extraction.
Followed by two painful infections & antibiotics.
For the third infection the dentist referred me to the oral maxillo facial surgery dept of the local hospital. I then suffered the most horrendous cyst on a lymph node next to the tooth extraction point.
This looked like a pingpong ball on the side of my cheek.
(I was the camping area troll at the Dyfi that year!)
Any way it resulted in the cyst being lanced without anaesthetic,
facial surgery and a 1.3/4 inch scar on my cheek!!
I need to go to the dentist but I’m scared to go now….hahaha.

Can often do a root treatment withouth anaesthetic if nerve of tooth is dead.
If a nerve is very heavily inflammed sometimes the anaesthetic doesn’t work as well which is probably why there are some horror stories about root canals.

Regarding the syringe dental anaesthetic comes in a glass cartridge which is placed in the metal gun and the needle attached to the end.
Needle would be similar to that stuck on the end of a plastic syringe.

PS I’m a dentist

Slight hijack but i know there are some dentists on here.

My wife had root canal and a crown fitted to one of her back molars about 6 months ago. It cost me several hundred quid. At the weekend she managed to remove it using a toffee. She’s been back so he can look at it again and has informed me, to my delight, that it won’t be ‘as expensive’ to replace because hopefully the crown will go back on OK, so it’s only his time we’ll be paying for.

Re: the dentist bit – is that right, would you expect a properly done job to fail under those circumstances / are you expected to pay again to have it fixed?

Re; the wife. grounds for divorce? (it’s already bumped my new frame aspirations down from a Niner SIR to a Salsa El mariachi to http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/wtd-29er-steel-frame-l?replies=3#post-4602088); or should I be considering special foundations for a new patio?

If it was a simple recement crown I’d normally just stick it on again and not charge the patient, doesn’t take much time to do and worth it to retain goodwill.

Probably isn’t though as I’d have done that when she came in, if she needs another appointment it may be that the tooth is broken below and it needs posts placed or a core built up again.

Should ask why it failed, what needs fixed and what you are paying for.

If it was a back tooth root treatment and crown for several hundred quid was it NHS or private, if only 200 quid probably NHS and to be honest its not really profitable to do….

These problems arise because of poor communication, either dentist doesn’t tell patient or patient doesn’t listen then they end up complaining about the cost