There's good news and there's bad news on the root canal front - but the good only makes sense if I fill you in on what happened after the first treatment: which is that my tooth continued to react strongly to cold (one of the main symptoms which had brought me to the endodontist's chair in the first place).
He'd assured me several times during that extraction of the nerve that I would never again feel cold on that tooth. But as soon as the anaesthesia wore off, I did. I was sure I did. I was back in the same postion of having to channel even lukewarm tap water to the left side of my mouth to avoid that tooth.
I happened to take Olle to our 'ordinary' dentist the next week and asked her if this was normal. She looked worried. No it wasn't normal. But she said to give it a while to see if it settled down.
I of course researched 'pain after r*ot canal' and discovered a rich seam of r*ot canal horror stories of endless, unresolvable pain on the good old Web.
I waited two weeks and when nothing had settled down, rang the endodontist's surgery. The receptionist took the details and said she'd ring back. When she did, it was with the news that the endo said it was completely impossible for me to be feeling cold in that tooth. I could come in for further tests that day or wait till the next appointment. I decided to wait.
My second appointment was yesterday. The endo came straight to the point - he placed dry ice, at a temp of minus 56 centrigrade, on the tooth. I felt nothing. Phew. He then placed it on the tooth next door. I felt something. He moved it around that tooth and discovered ... another crack. I felt a lot of something.
He thinks I must grind my teeth (something I'm unaware of doing) to have cracks in both those teeth.
I have to go back to my oridnary dentist for an ordinary filling to see if that takes care of that crack. If it doesn't, I'm in for another root canal.
Meanwhile, part two of this root canal was fairly similar, from the patient point of view, to part one. I'd been told it would be faster and easier but it wasn't. In part one, when he inserted the anaesthetic needle at the back of my mouth, he'd told me I might get some 'electric shocks' if it hit a nerve. I did - in my tongue. This time, he didn't warn me of that and I got shocks running from my chin up to my lips - that was horrible.
My endo is very soothing, however. This time he took some digitial photos of my mouth through his microscope, which I was able to look at on the computer screen next to the chair - photos of the crack and of the hollowed out tooth he was working on. He printed them out and gave me a copy to take to my dentist. I could scan them in for you, but that would be a bit too gruesome even for this fearless health reporter.
I hope the filling will do the trick for you. R has had some similar difficulty after a filling and the dentist said he must be a grinder too.
Posted by: Lori | Friday, March 21, 2008 at 12:37 PM