Dental work

[MORELLO]

Anyone had root canal work done recently? I've got a pre-molar that's going to need it, and I really hate having dental work done. My dentist is good, and reassures me the techniques used these days are much beteer and advanced than recent years, ie. no headlocks and hand held burrs to clear the canal! I would have it out and have a bridge done, but she's unwilling to take a otherwise decent 'front' tooth out. I see her point, professionally, but I'm sh*****g it!! Any positive (or not) experiences to report?

[Hermia]

I had one a couple of months ago and it was fine. I didn't feel a thing apart from the horrible injection. The only thing I found unpleasant is that it does take a while and I got a headache from being upside down so long.

[CarliJ]

i had a root canal done last year, and i was really really scared, but it was a really not that bad an experience.  I even had my root canal up on the wide screen tv, he had a little camera so i could see what he was doing.  After i had it done it felt so much better, and it feels weird at first but you learn to get used to it.  Although beware if the tooth actually starts to throb, go straight back.  This might mean the blood supply has been cut off!  hope this helps c x

[Hermia]

Bear in mind that the tooth may throb for a while afterwards anyway. I've had 2 root canals and it took a couple of months before they calmed down completely.

[sddsddean]

Had 2 done in the last year or so. Don't know if this is the same as everyone else, but for both mine I had to have a temporary filling put in whilst some 'gunge' my dentist put in the cavity killed off the nerve. Then went back a couple of weeks later to have it finished off. As others have said, your mouth aches from having to keep it wide open for 20 mins or so. Also, when the temp filling was in I had no pain at all, but after the proper filling was in and the job finished, it ached a bit for a couple of days. Apart from that, no problems.

[MORELLO]

Thanks to all, you all sound pretty positive. The thing that bothers me is that last year an attempt was made to drill a small hole in the dentine of another tooth to hold a post, and this was unbearable! So how, during root canal is my dentist going to be able to completely obliterate and clear the dentine in this one? This is keeping me awake!!

[Hermia]

Just explain this to your dentist. My dentist gave me 3 injections for each root canal. He warned me that it would mean I'd be dribbling and slurring my words all day! He says it's better to go overboard and deaden all the nerves so that he's then got a relaxed patient to deal with. I have got a massively oversensitive tooth and if my dentist is doing any work near it he makes sure he deadens the whole area. I honestly didn't feel a thing during the root canals.