| Author | Message | ||
     Rick_a |
My last dentist visit was in 1999 where I got a bunch of composite fillings by a Navy dentist. Next week I get my first root canal and then crown. A tooth that has been sensitive for years is now all messed up. The dentist recommends I get a bunch of fillings again, too. We're gonna be broke for some time, it looks like.  Just when things get comfortable something's always gotta get ya. It would be inexpensive to pull it but the dentist says there's plenty left to save. Of course, it costs 10X more to fix it than to pull it. I suggested a pair of pliers to the wife and she flipped out a bit. She was a little disappointed they didn't give me antibiotics or pain medication in the meantime. That's ok. It only hurts when I eat, drink, am dehydrated, exert myself, feel stressed, and at random times throughout the day. I don't take pain medications aside from ibuprofen anyway, and I don't think antibiotics matter when a root of my tooth is exposed via a big nasty hole. It's a doozy! | ||
| Reepicheep |
Toothaches are the worst. I cracked my pelvis and cracked a tooth compliements of a Corolla failing to yield. The cracked pelvis was the gift that kept on giving pain wise, but when the molar let go and started hurting, that was one of the worst nights of my life. Ugh! The root canal itself was a blessing in comparison to how bad it hurt beforehand, and I'm the kind of guy that finishes a day of dirt riding after breaking a foot or tearing an ACL because, well, it's just pain and I hate to ruin a trip for my buddies. That tooth had me flat on my back and whimpering. | ||
| D_adams |
Just wait until you get kidney stones. Curled up in a ball, squealing like a little girl will be the thing to look forward to. | ||
| Rick_a |
That's what I'm hoping for. I've nearly lost my entire calf muscle (clotted up solid), broken ribs, separated my shoulder, tore my rotator cuff twice on my left side, had a half coverage body bruise after a highside, been set ablaze, have completely thrown my back out a few times now, blew my knee out, etc...and walked it all off (eventually). I'm fairly pain resistant and find it kinda funny to have my lip involuntarily quivering and eyes watering uncontrollably...but it would sure be better not to! It makes me grumpy. Those little tooth nerves can really hit you like a lightning bolt.
Since a few guys my age have been relaying their own stone passing experiences, I decided to look into it some. I should be low on the susceptibility scale...should be... | ||
| Sifo |
I've been through broken ribs, separated shoulder, dislocated shoulder, among other various causes of bleeding along the way. None... NONE, compare to kidney stones! NONE! | ||
| Swampy |
I had a cap put on a tooth that had a small unnoticable to me crack...the dentist talked me into a cap, most miserable year of my life to get that tooth to settle down. First they made a mold, ground the thing down and put a temporary cap on. a couple of weeks later they pulled the cap off(OUCH!) and glued the finish cap on and it has not felt right since. I went in a couple of times and told the dentist that I will NEVER do that again and told him why. All they could give me is some nerve medicine to try and calm the nerve down and reground the mating surfaces. If I have problems with the same tooth again, I will have it removed just to spite the dentist! Root Canal? My wife has had quite a few of them and never complains, maybe the taking out of the root is the answer. (Message edited by swampy on September 29, 2015) | ||
| Ourdee |
Sifo, There is worse. Root canal is the way to go. I'm still trying to get enough money together to replace a pulled one. Take headphones and music. Use the nitrous, it's not just for going fast. | ||
| Bsanorton |
The grinding of the tooth to accept the cap is the worst. Of course I had to have the cap replaced because the gum around it never did heal right. We also left the nerve in the 1st time, big mistake I felt. Before we fit another better fitting cap on (free of charge of course) I had a root canal. Not bad at all, except he had to go in again as soon as he closed me up because x-rays showed there was still some nerve left. BUT no more pain nor sensitivity. Now all is fine. Root canal 1st, crown 2nd. It's the only bad tooth I've had to this point and took some time to get it right. | ||
| Rick_a |
That all sounds terrible. My first dentist experience was at four years old when I busted my front teeth. What was left of them was extracted. I just remember a bright light and screaming a lot. | ||
| Sifo |
I've had a tooth capped too. It was nothing compared to kidney stones I've had. | ||
| Pwnzor |
I've got $20,000 worth of crowns in my mouth, and they caused me about $0.01 worth of pain. It's all about the right dentist and maxillofacial surgeon. I can crush ice like a blender. | ||
| Johnnylunchbox |
My $.02 If you're going to have a root canal. go to an an endodontist - a dentist who specializes in root canals. He does them all day as opposed to a regular dentist who does them once in a while. | ||
| Reepicheep |
I went to an endodontist too. Good experience. | ||
| Xdigitalx |
A few years ago, I had procrastinated long enough... I could not take the pain any more I scanned the phonebook for a local endodontist and found one that would see me that day, after the $$ particulars, they xray'd me and prescribed me with 5 days of antibiotics and some pain relief meds, a week later it was over. The initial visit was a same day service (on a Saturday) I had no insurance, and they put me on a payment plan. 100 a month 10x. Take care of your freaking teeth!! | ||
| Ourdee |
I had gout go into a septic knee. 27cc of morphine couldn't touch the pain. I bent the rails on the hospital bed. Got up and walked out on the doctor. Made it home before I threw up. I thought the stones we're bad till then. 2 months on some thousand dollar a day antibiotics. X-ray showed the inside of my knee looked like the surface of the moon. Get that root canal. Piece of cake. Extraction wasn't bad either. Both are expensive if you want a tooth there after wards. | ||
| Robertl |
I was scared of root canals myself but honestly none have really hurt any more than a filling. It all depends on the doc though. Mine is quite cocky but he does an awesome job. Had 3 in the past 4 yrs. 1 they did after a crown and he just drilled through and they filled it later. The key is to not let it get too infected because that prevents the numbing medicine from working and often why people complain so much about the root canal. I have no problem taking pain medicine but I usually have to come back to work afterwards so my drug of choice is Tramadol (not a narcotic). It is not as strong as Vicodin so I can still function. I sometimes break them in half and take every 2-3 hrs. That with aleve or advil does well. There are a lot of reasons not to have one extracted without a replacement. You can google those on your own. I just have bad teeth and always have so crowns, fillings, and now root canals have become the norm for me. I use a Flex account at work to plan ahead. I also pay for the highest dental plan we have at work. 2 crowns and 1 root canal this year. | ||
| Pwnzor |
My dentist always sent me to an Endo for the root canal portion of the job. Same reason, you want a guy who does nothing but root canals. | ||
| Trevd |
Make sure it's not infected and that the freezing works... I had a tooth that was causing me pain about 10 years ago, and it just didn't go away. Eventually, the pain got unbearable, and I went into my dentist. He said it was infected, but that he would try to do the root canal then and there. He froze it, with the warning that when it's infected, sometimes the freezing doesn't take, and to tell him if it hurt. Then he started drilling... it started hurting, but the pain I had been going through for the previous 24 hours was so bad that I just wanted it taken care of, so I let him keep going - BIG MISTAKE! Suddenly I felt the worst pain I'd felt up to that point in my life - it felt like my whole being was screaming from that little hole in my tooth. Eventually, he must have seen the sweat on my head mixed with the tears, and asked me if it hurt. You bet it does I told him! He then stopped, prescribed some antibiotics and told me to come back in 5 days... when I did, it was a piece of cake. No pain. Lesson learned - when a dentist tells you to tell him if it hurts, TELL HIM, cause it will probably only get worse if you don't. (Message edited by trevd on September 30, 2015) | ||
| Etennuly |
GET THE GAS!!!! I had a traumatic experience as a youngster at a dentist's office to. The first time I went for a filling at about ten years old the guy did not wait for the numbing stuff to work before starting with the drill. I remember having tears running into my sneekers, but my dad had told me to buck it up and not cry, so I never wimpered. Despite my protests my mom took me back to that bastard, neither of whom would listen to a kid, about six more times over a few years. This for fillings I believe I did not even need. He was making holes with a lot of pressure on one of those pick devices. I did not go back to a dentist for fifteen years. Fortunately I met a good one who understood sensitive teeth pain. He gave me the gas before numbing me. It became an awesome experience to have a tooth fixed and not have to scream inside. My current dentist is great, but even with the gas and being properly numbed, he still has to talk me down from ripping the arms off the chair. .....and yes.....I tried the kidney stone. Intense, but it passed in a couple of hours of somewhat debilitating pain. I also tried a spinal injury that was that kind of intense pain for the first couple of years(morph and all of the other drugs did nothing to ease that). It took fifteen years for that deal to taper off to where it was not the forefront of my day's planning. Ya just can't prop up your spine like a broken leg or arm. I believe all of this history is why it was no big deal to me, when I rode my Uly home from the '07 Homecoming crash.I rode out the next morning with two broken ribs, four more cracked ribs and two sprained ankles. That pain was only intense when I laughed, coughed, sneezed, moved too fast or far, transitioning from standing to sitting or lying down, hit a bump in the road, or had to stand and turn on my feet. Shying away from what you know will cause intense pain is a sign of intelligence coming from your brain's desire to protect you. | ||
| Etennuly |
Oh yeah, I said all that to say that my wife(who uses the same dentist) can go get a filling done, a root canal, a cap, with drilling and all, without even being numbed with anything. She used to call me a baby about going to the dentist until he explained to her about people's dental nerve anatomy being different patient to patient. | ||
| Rick_a |
An endo is doing the procedure on Mon and the dentist is capping it on Tuesday. The dentist is nice, straight forward, and kind. She's been straight with me. She said one root is compromised but the rest of the tooth is solid. The referral was given as she can't handle molars due to their complexity. She has a look of sincerity in her eyes that I appreciate. Most medical professionals I've dealt with look at a patient in a similar fashion I would expect if I were diseased livestock. Monday can't come soon enough. It seems as soon as I'm almost finished with a small food item it flares up something fierce. It feels like a red hot ice pick is being shoved through the tooth. The random flare ups are really bothersome. I'm realizing that I may be a bit messed up for my age. Sitting in a chair for a while often results in a painful back spasm. Standing on my feet all day results in the bottom of my right foot being in pain. As long as I can walk, talk, shoot, and ride a 'cycle I guess I'm doing alright. | ||
| Rick_a |
I think my wife was just proud of me for going. Skipping out was on the back of my mind. I tend to see professionals only when there's leaks I can't fix and such or infections that are starting to kill me. | ||
| Rick_a |
Etennuly's post reminded me of this: | ||
| Etennuly |
Ok that got me curious.....reminded you of what? Nothing at all???  | ||
| Rick_a |
This, if the embedded video doesn't show: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOtMizMQ6oM | ||
| Etennuly |
 That fits! | ||
| Rick_a |
The root canal happened. I believe it presented a bit of a challenge. I was under the drill for three hours. The smell of burnt tooth was with me all day. Otherwise it wasn't so bad. There was a filling in the way, one canal had calcified, my tooth had a lot of chambers, and my canals were also very curvy. It went over the allotted time quite a bit. I guess I got my money's worth... There's some dull pain but nothing like it was. Onto the next...the crown. | ||
| Xdigitalx |
Good deal man,... mouth surgery can suk. See this yet?? | ||
| Rick_a |
Never heard of it. Looks fun. Got the temporary crown today. The staff are all sweethearts. None too gentle on the work, but it was no big deal either. Got some gum surgery as well. I jokingly told her I wasn't too keen on the surgery part, so she started to explain. I cut her off and told her it's fine. I now have only healthy tooth and gum left. She used a bigger needle than the Endo guy, so in conjunction with already being tender there, that going into my upper pallet brought a tear to my eye. That was the worst of it aside from more ground tooth smells. | ||
| Pwnzor |
The roof of the mouth is a good one, but my favorite was when they made me open as wide as I could, put in a plastic brace to hold me in that position, and shove a very thick needle into the hinge in my jaw on both sides several times. Then go around the sides, giving a series of smaller shots until my whole head felt like a 50 pound block of ice and the dental assistant grew tentacles while spewing fire out of her ears. |
