Today I had both. Yup, today I was the lucky recipient of a root canal. This past Saturday evening, one of my teeth (bottom in the front) started to ache. It had happened before so I figured it would go away. Every time it had hurt in the past I recalled what a dentist told me about 2 years ago about this tooth: that it would need a root canal at some point. How did he know this? Apparently the fact that it was slightly darker than my other teeth indicated to him that the nerve was dying and that there could be an infection. I decided not to do anything at that point. I mean, why go through something that has such a bad rap if it's not hurting, right? Well, back to Saturday. It wasn't too bad so I took some nice 800 mg Ibuprofen (left over from having Elisabeth) and went to sleep. Sunday the tooth was throbbing more and I decided that I was going to have to go to the dentist on Monday. Fast forward to Sunday night: me rolling on the couch in agony clutching my face and wondering if it would be really terrible to take 3 800 mg Ibuprofens at once (I decided that over-dosing wouldn't help anything at this point, so I didn't). Rich called a dentist on Monday morning and I got an appointment for 2 pm. I went in and it was confirmed that I did indeed need a root canal and that I had an abscess. The dentist (who was very nice) prescribed me antibiotics which he said would make the pain lessen and we scheduled the root canal for Thursday.
So here we are on Thursday. My appointment was at 2 pm. I was really nervous because I'm not a fan of dentists (nothing personal, but anyone who's poking in my mouth causing me pain is not on my top 10 list) or dental procedures. The root canal wasn't really all that bad. If you're curious, check out the ADA's description of the procedure. Things started to get uncomfortable near the end because the anesthetic started wearing off and I started feeling stuff. That was less than enjoyable. But overall, I have to say: it wasn't worse than childbirth so I guess that's saying something. We'll see how I feel tonight. Apparently, the infection that's raging in my tooth may be resistant to penicillin so if it starts hurting and doesn't respond to Ibuprofen then I may have to go on a different antibiotic. Let's hope that doesn't happen because I'm all done with pain for a little while I think.
Oh...and on a side note, I'm just about able to feel my lip again.
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1 comment:
I am so glad it went OK. I hope you are feeling better now. I still have a bottle of my post-C-section extra-extra-strength Tylenol saved up for just such a purpose. It didn't seem to have any effect on me when I got home from the hospital, but I think that is because they were giving me Demerol in the hospital, and that stuff is awesome!
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