Not for the queasy...
Sep. 16th, 2003 09:54 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
litheraSo. Root Canal fun.
I went to the dentist and got there right on time. I went in and I got more x-rays of my teeth before, for a clearer picture of what is going on in there. I am a little nervous at this point. It's been awhile since I've done this sort of thing and the last time I had my dad around.
Sitting down in the chair, I make the mistake of looking around at the assembled tools on the trays and see the large novocaine needle and the drills. I am so smart. The assistant comes in with a form that I need to read over and sign. I read it over and it says that they are not resposnsible if anything at all goes wrong during the proceedure. Sometimes people die under anesthesia. Sometimes teeth crack and break. Things happen. So, I read it and sign it, feeling a little more nervous.
Then she puts the topical analgesic (right word?) to numb my gums. You can tell they've tried to make it taste good, which seem kind of counter productive to me. You're not supposed to swallow it yet it makes your mouth water. Seems silly to me. After sitting around like this for awhile, I can feel my tongue and the back of my throat starting to go numb as well.
Then the dentist comes in and checks things over and tells me that if at any point I feel like I can't breath, to let her know. (Because of my asthma.) I'm supposed to raise my hand if there is anything wrong. I figure that seems easy enough. So, she grabs my lip, pulls it out, wiggles some and uses the big needle to inject me with novocaine. It didn't hurt as much as I remembered which was comforting.
After a few more checks of the x-rays, she pulls the drill up and we start with the opening of my mouth and holding my cheek away from my teeth. There are two drills - the fast one which is high pitched and the slow one which makes your head shake just a little. There is lots of drilling and drilling and me holding my mouth open really wide and just general dicomfort.
Dr. Chen finds two of the nerves and puts these small tightly wound screws into the holes and sends me over for x-rays so she can find the last one. I can't close my mouth at this point because I would drive the screws up into my upper jaw. So, x-rays are quite a bit of entertainment and fun.
After the x-rays we go back for more drilling and she finds the last nerve. Then there are more of those screw things used to scrape my nerves out of the holes she has just created. There is blood involved and in the end, what is left on my little dentist bib is a strange sticky orangish-brown substance that is obviously blood and something mixed, probably nerve tissue, I guess.
Then thing cotton swab type things are sent through to clean it out, along with liberal dosings of saline solution to clean it out even more. We go for one more set of x-rays with the swabs in to make sure that she's gotten it all out. At this point I sneak a feel of my tooth with my tounge and freak out that it is just a bog hole. After a moment I realize that makes sense, of course, and calm down.
Then she starts packing the holes she's created with similar thin rolls of something, though these are different. At about this point I realize that the novocaine is starting to wear off and I can start to feel what they're doing. No pain, just sensation. After packing the holes, the ends are still sticking out.
This is where the fire comes in. See, they use a small blowtorch to heat up a metal tool so that they can seal the ends of those tightly and bond them. This takes more than one application of this extremely heated metal thing to my tooth and smoke rising from my mouth. Let me tell you, the smell is pretty horrendous.
Then, after that, it's just sealing up the hole, which is exactly like it is if you've ever had a cavity. They make this paste and re-contruct your tooth with it. Then they shine the magic light on it to make it hard. I have no idea how it really works, I just know that you're not supposed to look at the light directly.
With the x-rays and the light, I always feel that I'm either going to get cancer or become a super hero through this stuff.
I went to the dentist and got there right on time. I went in and I got more x-rays of my teeth before, for a clearer picture of what is going on in there. I am a little nervous at this point. It's been awhile since I've done this sort of thing and the last time I had my dad around.
Sitting down in the chair, I make the mistake of looking around at the assembled tools on the trays and see the large novocaine needle and the drills. I am so smart. The assistant comes in with a form that I need to read over and sign. I read it over and it says that they are not resposnsible if anything at all goes wrong during the proceedure. Sometimes people die under anesthesia. Sometimes teeth crack and break. Things happen. So, I read it and sign it, feeling a little more nervous.
Then she puts the topical analgesic (right word?) to numb my gums. You can tell they've tried to make it taste good, which seem kind of counter productive to me. You're not supposed to swallow it yet it makes your mouth water. Seems silly to me. After sitting around like this for awhile, I can feel my tongue and the back of my throat starting to go numb as well.
Then the dentist comes in and checks things over and tells me that if at any point I feel like I can't breath, to let her know. (Because of my asthma.) I'm supposed to raise my hand if there is anything wrong. I figure that seems easy enough. So, she grabs my lip, pulls it out, wiggles some and uses the big needle to inject me with novocaine. It didn't hurt as much as I remembered which was comforting.
After a few more checks of the x-rays, she pulls the drill up and we start with the opening of my mouth and holding my cheek away from my teeth. There are two drills - the fast one which is high pitched and the slow one which makes your head shake just a little. There is lots of drilling and drilling and me holding my mouth open really wide and just general dicomfort.
Dr. Chen finds two of the nerves and puts these small tightly wound screws into the holes and sends me over for x-rays so she can find the last one. I can't close my mouth at this point because I would drive the screws up into my upper jaw. So, x-rays are quite a bit of entertainment and fun.
After the x-rays we go back for more drilling and she finds the last nerve. Then there are more of those screw things used to scrape my nerves out of the holes she has just created. There is blood involved and in the end, what is left on my little dentist bib is a strange sticky orangish-brown substance that is obviously blood and something mixed, probably nerve tissue, I guess.
Then thing cotton swab type things are sent through to clean it out, along with liberal dosings of saline solution to clean it out even more. We go for one more set of x-rays with the swabs in to make sure that she's gotten it all out. At this point I sneak a feel of my tooth with my tounge and freak out that it is just a bog hole. After a moment I realize that makes sense, of course, and calm down.
Then she starts packing the holes she's created with similar thin rolls of something, though these are different. At about this point I realize that the novocaine is starting to wear off and I can start to feel what they're doing. No pain, just sensation. After packing the holes, the ends are still sticking out.
This is where the fire comes in. See, they use a small blowtorch to heat up a metal tool so that they can seal the ends of those tightly and bond them. This takes more than one application of this extremely heated metal thing to my tooth and smoke rising from my mouth. Let me tell you, the smell is pretty horrendous.
Then, after that, it's just sealing up the hole, which is exactly like it is if you've ever had a cavity. They make this paste and re-contruct your tooth with it. Then they shine the magic light on it to make it hard. I have no idea how it really works, I just know that you're not supposed to look at the light directly.
With the x-rays and the light, I always feel that I'm either going to get cancer or become a super hero through this stuff.
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Eeew
Date: 2003-09-16 10:59 am (UTC)On a semi-related note: I want magic light-induced superpowers! Maybe they'd be all dentist-related, y'know? The ability to numb someone's mouth and make them talk funny and drool a lot, or maybe the ability to create that high-pitched whine of a drill to make your opponents all simultaneously double over and cringe.
Re: Eeew
Date: 2003-09-16 11:20 am (UTC)I figure it should be interesting to get those sorts of powers. Even if it just means you can shine the light on other people.
no subject
Date: 2003-09-16 11:05 am (UTC)I have really bad teeth, and have had my fair share of root canals. Its terrible. I brush and floss at least twice a day... I just have bad tooth genes or something.
I found that drinking something warm, like a cup of tea, or putting a heating pad or hot-pack against your face can help with the pain.
I do hope you feel better soon, and I hope you don't have to go through this again!
no subject
Date: 2003-09-16 11:22 am (UTC)My dentist told me that if I use kids mouth wash (ACT to be specific) it can help re-build my teeth. I hope so.
no subject
Date: 2003-09-16 11:35 am (UTC)I've got weak spots, too, and just pretty weak teeth in general. I broke one once biting a nail!
Make sure you get enough calcium... well, minerals in general. Your body is gonna need them while its rebuilding and recovering!
*hugs*
no subject
Date: 2003-09-16 11:21 am (UTC)FIRE!
YEAH!
no subject
Date: 2003-09-16 11:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-09-16 01:51 pm (UTC)Lithera the Red went to the dentist one day and ...
cosmic radiation ... super powers...
no subject
Date: 2003-09-16 12:44 pm (UTC)But thank you for writing about it in such detail. I've never had a root canal, so I had no idea what it's like.
If I ever have to have a root canal done, I'm going to get someone to take a picture of smoke coming out of my mouth. Too strange to miss.
no subject
Date: 2003-09-16 12:48 pm (UTC)Oi.