First crown. Had all the root canal work done a few weeks back but I’m a bit confused now what i’m going to experience today. He didn’t bother putting a temporary crown in and to me it just feels like there’s a smooth surface on top of the root. It’s flush with the gum, actually it’s a bit below the gum. I thought I’d have some sort of post sticking out.

So what will he do today, any ideas? Obviously I’m shitting it because I’m a right nancy when it comes to the dentist and this unknown business is making it worse.

I think the basics are covered in the film marathon man.
They terrify me too.

If you have already had the root canal work done then the worst bit is over.

That was on last night Ian, I declined to watch it. I know the worst bit is over, or so everyone tells me but I’ve heard all sorts of stories about acid and slicing gums up and bolting things in. Ah well, you lot have been useless cos I’ve got to set off now.

(im not expert) but the wife had root canal then a post set, then a temp crown, then had to go back again to have the temp off then the perm one put in place. so it ‘may’ be your tooth wasnt as bad as hers and the crown will sit over what he’s already done.

i feel you pain… i went to the dentist 3 weeks ago for the first time in 15 years, thankfully nothing was wrong all i needed was tow sessions of scale and polish.

I’ve had exactly the same. My dentist always tells me that the temporary crown is just to stop the neighbouring teeth from encroaching into the gap.

Probably he will stick a couple of titanium pins in and then bond the new crown on top.

Shouldn’t feel a thing.

PS My dentist says “just a little prick with a needle” every time he goes to inject me. I always giggle.

Right, well there’s a few lies floating around about this process so lets clear them out right now.

‘The worst is over’ whilst technically true (only because the root canal treatment is so horrendous), implies that fitting the crown is not bad at all. This is not true.

First off, he’d left a temporary filling in so he drilled that out. Then he proceeded to prepare the root for the ‘post’. This involved quite a bit of drilling, try and jam the post in, bit more drilling. This hurt… a lot. No need for a local though, it’ll be fine. Finally he’d excavated enough tooth to satisfy him and was ready to glue it in. Trouble was, my gums had grown over the hole a bit.

Does the dentist now…

a) Gently tease the gums back with a wooden spatula.
b) Provide a local anaesthetic and gently cut the gum away carefully.
c) Hack away willy nilly at the gum without any pain relief whilst smiling happily as blood sprays across his face. After all, it’s not his gum is it?

Answers on a Lidocaine soaked swab.

Right, so the scene is set. A huge great lump of metal pleasantly referred to as ‘a post’ has been lodged in my gum using copious amounts of superglue. My mouth is swimming in blood and salvia which the orange dental nurse is currently kindly trying to remove by jamming the suction tube half way down my osephegus and the dentist is peering closely at what is either a large tictac or a small suppository.

Can’t get any worse can it?

Now apparently the impressions that the dentist took of my teeth last time I came will allow the dental lab to create a finely tuned crown that will slot perfectly into place, and obviously the dentist has already ensured the post will fit the tooth, hasn’t he? How naive am I?

He begins drilling away apparently at random at the crown, occasionally having a quick shimmy on the post throwing shards of molten titanium into the melting pot of blood, bile, sweat and saliva gradually building up in my mouth while the assistant simultaneously texts her friends and sucks my throat tissues out.

Eventually he’s ready to glue the crown in place. The assistant, job done, leaves us to it so she can stick another half inch of eyeliner on and the dentist puts his crown fitting boots on. This thing needs to be pressed on hard and legs are stronger than arms.

When I wake up the crown is in and the dentist is standing there admiring his work. He presents me with a mirror to examine the masterpiece for myself. Gulping gently I gingerly hold the mirror up and look at what looks like the result of a proper fight with knives and bats and chains. It’s hard to tell how good it is because it’s covered in blood, brain tissue and burnt titanium but it’s certainly in the right place, looks like it might be the right colour and when I bite, it touches at the same time as all the other teeth.

‘Thanks’, I say, ‘is it supposed to be giving me searing agony constantly?’
‘we just scratched your gum a bit, that’ll go soon’, he tells me as he pushes me out of the door.

I try to pay but because my mouth has swelled up on one side and because the receptionist is not English, or indeed, has not been taught how to say anything in English, I leave only a few grams of flesh lighter.

😯

It’s always nice when things turn out better than you expected.

sounds like a typical day in my surgery 😈

Why oh why has nobody said MTFU?

With an imagination like that you should write stuff y’know 😉

That sounds horrible! I had a root canal done but the anesthetic didn’t work and the tears running down my face and me jumping everytime something was done didn’t seem to faze the dentist!

I think there are a subset of people who are reasonably immune to some anaesthetics to be honest. When dentists used to use Novacaine it never worked for me. I could always feel everything, always extremely painful. I would yell and jump out of the chair in agony and the dentist would always tell me to stop being silly, of course you can't feel anything. Almost certainly the reason I have issues with dentists now.

The newer ones are much better but I can still feel quite a lot of pain during drilling.