Thursday, March 09, 2006

Surprisingly Painless...

That's how I would describe my first (and hopefully only) experience having a root canal performed on my tooth today. I knew before I went to the dentist on Tuesday that I had a cavity in need of filling. It was one of those things that just kept getting put off. I'm sure you other Mommies out there know what I mean. First I was pregnant and didn't feel like dealing with any additional poking or prodding - no matter that only my mouth was involved. Then of course, the baby was born and I was pretty much quarenteened to the house with her until she was 8 weeks old. Then there were programs to attend at my daughter's kindergarten... and things just kept popping up that were more important that making that dentist's appointment. We are planning to go to Texas for Spring Break though, and so I decided that I wanted to have that tooth fixed before we left to go on our trip. Alan called and made the appointment for me since I had never been to that particular dentist before. We had recently decided to change dentists and Alan had been to him several times but Tuesday was my first visit. I absolutely loved my new dentist and his staff (at least as much as anyone can love a dentist! LOL ) However, I was shocked to discover that what I perceived to be a small cavity was actually a tooth in need of a root canal. I dreaded it for the 48 some odd hours between appointments, and then was tremendously relieved today when the procedure turned out to be totally painless. I turned down all medication other than the local anesthesia and opted out of a prescription for pain meds following the procedure, choosing instead to use Advil when necessary. It's been 11 hours since my appointment and I have yet to feel any pain. I even ate pizza for dinner! :)

2 comments:

Alison said...

And just where in Texas are you going? :)

Hope you are still feeling good. :)

overactive-imagination said...

YAY!! As a dental assistant for 10 years, I can tell you that is how ALL root canals are supposed to go. I've had a couple myself and the only pain I ever had was about a day later and the tooth was sesitive when I bit own on it but not bad. (that is from them pushing on the tooth so much while doing the root canal and it's not actually the tooth that hurts, it's because the periodontal ligament was stretched).
Glad it went well.
Dawn