scrubbedexpat091

I was scared and put it off for a long time, I see where your coming from now. Yeah I would have preferred being sedated vs being awake and hearing everything.

mikehope

Its that "crunch" when it finally breaks free

chartreuse

Who says I've got two teeth?

Perhaps I should move to Maine?

Jerseygirl

You've just made my mind up.

rebs

I had my all wisdom teeth out when I was in my early 20s, so about 20 years ago now...

At the time, the dentist gave me the option of 2 appointments, taking 2 teeth out each visit under a local or a visit to the dental dept at the hospital and have all 4 taken out with a general anesthetic.

I opted for the general and all 4 at once - I didn't want to be at all aware of what was going on... I'd choose the same option again today.

Jerseygirl

I'm leaning towards asking him to remove all 4...if I'm sedated I may as well get rid of them all.

meauxna

I had all mine out in one go when I was 17 or 18. I remember that my mother took me to the guy's office & they got me settled in the chair, gave me a shot & left me.
Then, looking around and being alone in the room. Someone came in and I said 'Aren't we going to get started with this?' and she laughed at me and told me they finished 20 minutes ago.

Don't believe him about the crunch.

Steerpike

I had my left one done first, then quite some time later, my right one. The problem with doing both sides at once is, you can't eat solids for a longer period of time. Since I was knocked out both times, there was no suffering involved.

Update on my root canal - it took about a week to 'settle down' (only way I can explain it) - still hurt a bit, making me think it was not going to be successful, but - after that, it's been perfect. I'm so happy I can eat 'normally' now!

Brit3964

That's the worse bit!

I had some deep root cleaning done about 4yrs ago. Was the best dental experience ever. While he didn't knock me out, he gave me 2 small pills to take about an hour before the appointment. Turns out it was a form of Vallium. Sure makes the rest of the day go quick and the best part is you hardly remember anything because it effects your short term memory. Only way to go

Michael

I had a root canal done about 4 months ago. Unfortunately it was one of the teeth that was under a 3 tooth bridge that I had done about 30 years ago so they had to chip out and replace the bridge. The new bridge was $3,700 and the root canal was $950.

Previously I had two other root canals done without any problems and absolutely no pain afterwards.

However, on this one the dentist tried to do the root canal and didn't feel comfortable that he had gotten the root out completely so he sent me to a specialist to finish it off. When his work and the work of the specialists on the root canal was finished, everything was fine without any pain. Then about 1 month later I went back to the dentist to have it finished off by having the posts inserted and order the new bridge. After that I started having some pain but didn't say anything about the pain since it had disappeared when I saw dentist again to have the new bridge put in.

After that I had very mild pain on and off (mostly on) for about the next two months (started to worry me) but it finally disappeared about two weeks before I saw the dentist again for my normal checkup. When I told the dentist about the previous pain, he tried to explain to me that it was impossible to have pain just by inserting the posts and that procedure normally doesn't even require novacaine. Anyway the pain has now been gone for over a month so it appears that everything is ok.

I have 2 3 tooth bridges in my mouth and the next time a root canal has to be done under one of those bridges, I'm going to insist that they drill through the bridge to do the root canal and then just fill it.

kins

I had a root canal done on the NHS a few years ago. No pain at all either in my mouth or wallet

They didn't put a crown on it though, and it wasn't till I moved to the US that I found out you should have a crown on a root canal.

My first dentist here told me I'd have to have the root canal redone, at a cost of $1400, then a crown on top at a cost of $1000. I guess he wanted a new boat or something. I got a second opinion...

Michael

What did the dentist say was the reason that the root canal needed to be redone? I don't believe that a root canal would need to be redone unless the x-ray showed that the root was not completely removed or you experienced pain in that tooth. He may have felt that posts should have been inserted when none was put in but that is not a root canal and probably shouldn't be more than about $500.

The posts and the crown are used on teeth that have little tooth structure remaining to try to keep everything together. The crown is also a better seal than a filling.

clarissageo

I've been watching this thread with interest 'specially as I've just started my Dental Assistant training!

I've had 3 root canals done in England, none of them have been crowned, and now every one of them is going to need work doing on them. Two of the teeth are broken, and one of them is fractured. Luckily we refer to alot of Endo's (and oral surgeons) so I may be able to get a bit of discount.... I still don't want it done though.

The Ironic thing is, even though I work in a Dental office (its pediatric), and my teeth are super white, the state of them where you can't see is awful. Occasionally at work when it is quiet the hygienists shout out to see if anyone wants a cleaning, and I always suddenly become busy because I don't want them to see all my cavities!! Again, the Ironic thing is that we don't get dental insurance at work because the theory is that it can all be done for us and we don't need it!..... bottom line is that although I work in one, the dentist scares the shit out of me!

I was doing treatment on a kid on Thursday though that cracked me up.... We administer Nitrous automatically for treatment, and this lil 5 year old came in all ready to go.... we stuck him on the nitrous, and within about 5 minutes that kid lost his mind.... he was laying there talking to himself, laughing his butt off... so much so his mom took a video and sent it to dad, and there were 3 of us in the room just watching him - once we started treatment, and put the tooth pillow in... he passed out... fast asleep.... and we had to wake him up when we were done!!!

If only all of them were that easy - the one straight after him was throwing his arms around and actually smacked my boss in the face!

AmerLisa

I understand that! I don't work in a dentist office though. I have always made sure my kids went to the dentist, and brush their teeth, etc. And my husband as well. But even though I take care of my teeth at home, brushing etc, I'm a big baby when it comes to dental care. Of course I know what the end result will be, I'm not naive, but I don't do well in a dental chair.

Steerpike

The single best thing I ever did for my teeth was start flossing every day. Until I started that, I had bad breath, and the semi-annual cleanings were painful. Now, my breath is fresh, and the cleanings are a breeze. I'm sure it helps with decay too, but that's secondary! Also - for those who struggle with flossing - I started flossing every morning. It's not the 'best' time (night-time is better) but my dentist told me - the key is to do it at some point in the day - any time is better than no time, and in reality any food stuck there from an evening meal is not really going to start doing damage for 12-24 hours anyway. Also - I tried 10 different floss brands/types before finding one that would work for me.