Root Canal

[Monika]

Recently, I have had an infection in my mouth (probably under a tooth) and I was prescribed antibiotics by my GP.

I was due a 6 monthly inspection at my dentist on the 6th day of the course and he x-rayed the tooth and told me that the nerve was dying and it needed removing and the hole plugged, otherwise I would keep getting these infections under it.

I made an appointment for the following Thursday but on the Sunday I developed an extremely sore mouth and tongue. When I went to my GP, he said that I had got thrush (from the antibiotics) so I cancelled my appointment until it had cleared up.

Yesterday, I phoned and made another appointment for this coming Thursday but - I AM TERRIFIED of having this done.

Has anyone on here had this treatment? (If you have and you had a bad time of it - I don't want to know, but I would like to hear from anyone who thought it was OK)

I'm not scared of the dentists as a rule.

[shade]

Monika I am terrified of the dentist,but I have had a root canal filling and if my experience is anything to go by, there is absolutely nothing to be afraid off.

Good Luck to you.

[Monsy]

I have had a root canal filling. It was no worse than an ordinary filling. I found the worst bit was the scraping noise as the unwanted stuff was removed! If you feel the slightest discomfort, tell the dentist and he/she will top up the painkiller. (I was going to say Novocaine, but I don't know if that's what they use nowadays.)

[Monika]

Shade and Monsy ................. I'm so glad I asked this question, I feel a heap better for your positive posts about it.

Thank you both, very much indeed.

[twinsmum]

I have had quite a few root canal filling recently, you shouldn't have a problem I was a little sore but only because of the limited accesses he has due to the surgery iv had on my mouth,at one point I got an infection and all my face looked as if Id sat in the sun for hours

[Monika]

Thanks, Barbara.

You have all been a great help; I think it is the fear of the unknown but I have been so fraught that I have been waking up in the early hours with this on my mind.

It's being done tomorrow so, after all this help, I hopw to get a good night's sleep.

THANK YOU ALL

[dejavou]

No problem Monika, as the others have said, it's no worse than an ordinary filling, except you have have to keep your mouth open for longer and as you know it's un-natural to have your gob open when your not speaking

[Clara]

Monika; I used to be terrified of going to the dentist, but over the last few years, I have had loads of treatment at the dental hospital, as my teeth were so badly worn, my own dentist couldn't do all the treatment I needed. I have had all my teeth (except the bottom front six) crowned, including some that were too short to be crowned, so they had to be made longer in order to do it. The way they did it was to cut away some of the gum and bone at the base of these teeth to expose enough tooth to crown. Sounds horrendous doesn't it? Well that's what I thought. But all the gum was frozen so I didn't feel a thing. Not even afterwards. There were a couple of disolveable stitches in it which gave me no problems at all. I had a root canal too, which was a pushover after all the other treatment. It is mostly uncomfortable rather than painful, as it was a deep one. It's just the pressure they put on the jawbone that's uncomfortable really. I've had two bridges (one hinged, as it was long to replace two back teeth) and the crowns were either all metal or in the case of the front ones, metal backed. It took about four years to complete it all, being hospital treatment with long delays in between appointments, but it was finished last year and now my own dentist has the job of looking after them (maintenance he calls it) Needless to say after all that, nothing about the dentist will ever scare me again! (I used to sit in the chair with everything rigid. My legs would be straight out in front of me stiff as boards and I'd be gripping the arms of the chair with white knuckles! Not any more!)

[Monsy]

There are no dentists in these here parts.

I hear a Polish couple are setting up, so I will try and get in there.

*puts bravery hat on*

feart........

[dita]

I now have a Polish Dentist, think I have discussed this before both on here and on my Blog. Think there are now 2 more New ones in our area both Polish. The one I have is lovely she speaks very good English and is really easy to talk to. She has given me lots of advise but is unable to save my top teeth which have now loosened because of me being nearly 2yrs without urgent treatment of the previous dentist, she was off work sick for nearly a year and then left the practise leaving all her patients in the lurch. Of course then we were all put on a waiting list, trouble is gum disease does not wait. Not when 5,000 people are waiting.

I am very soon going to have false top nashers, just keep delaying it.

[shade]

Monika, how did you get on at the dentist???

[Monika]

After all the positive encouragement I received, I'm sorry to have to tell you that it proved to be an utter disaster.

I spent three quarters of an hour in the chair and between 35 and 40 minutes of drilling (and at one point dreadful grinding which is really the most awful experience I never want repeated).

All this ended abruptly with my dentist saying that he was terribly sorry but he couldn't do it.

He told me that he had spent all this time trying and trying to find the nerve and that the root canal was blocked due to that tooth having so many past fillings and also to the tooth partially healing itself.

The upshot is that it will, again, become infected at some time in the future and it will have to be removed.

The odd thing is that I had a really bad feeling about having this work done and said so to my Mum and my husband - so it has taught me that if I ever have that feeling again in the future I should go with my instinct.

The bottom line is that I went through all this today for absolutely nothing.

I think if everything had gone well, then I would not have had to sit there for that amount of time and I would have been very happy to have had it done and it would have borne out all that everyone of you had said.

I do thank you all, though, as I wasn't feeling too bad about going after reading the posts - and I think you will all be very disappointed for me.

[dejavou]

Not at all Monika .... just sorry it didn't work out for you

[Rowan]

I am sorry Monika. I've had some really bad experiences with dentists myself so wasn't going to terrify you with them.

[shade]

I am so sorry Monika that it didn't work out for you and I do hope it hasn't put you off for future treatment.