Woke up this morning after another brutal night (almost no sleep at all), and realised I'd gone through nearly half my painkillers and had survived only 48 hours, I had 120 hours to go before my scheduled root canal. I guess it was calculating that I wasn't even halfway, and that things didn't seem to be getting any better...I had the sudden realisation: "I'm not going to make it." I called up my dentist nearly shaking, and they told me to come over at 2:45 PM.
Things kept getting worse throughout the day, until by the time I got to the dentist, the pain was immense and I was also fearful that they might tell me they couldn't yet do the root canal, that I needed to spend more time on antibiotics. So between the pain and the worry, I was absolutely sobbing as I made my way to the dentist. Tried to pull it together before I got in the door, but then when I got to the desk the receptionist asked, "Is everything all right, love?" and another shooting pain went through my tooth and I just lost it. Absolutely started sobbing right there in the reception. It was so embarrassing, but boy did it get a reaction from everyone in the entire place!
When I explained it was the pain in my tooth, they got me sitting down, gave me some water and got me breathing deeply until I calmed down, and then as soon as I could be counted on to sit still and stop shaking, they quickly shot me up with Novocain. And then....bliss. They really could have sent me home at that point and I would have been okay, although as a courtesy they decided to do the root canal too while I was there! It was funny because I had been crying when I arrived, but then I was so grateful for the Novocain that I practically started crying because it was such a relief to escape the pain!
I didn't even notice the drilling (I could have happily taken a nap at that point, I was so exhausted from not getting any sleep these past few days). The procedure went exactly how everything online had described, as first he had to drill through the existing filling, and all of a sudden I could smell a really bad stink as the dentist said, "And now we're in!" If I'd been able to talk at that point, I would have said, "I could have told you that!" It was incredibly obvious we had reached the rot...
He cleared out my roots with some mini-files, and then he filled up the tooth with something that makes me mouth taste like a swimming pool and put some kind of rubber plug on it. I'm told to avoid chewing on it, and then he's going to fix it up properly on Monday. It's still apparent that a root canal is only something you do if you're desperate, but when you are desperate, what sweet relief it provides!
The dentist told me that when he'd gotten down there, the nerves had been quite inflamed and there has been a swollen abscess, as he said, "Just as you'd told me, like your tooth was about to explode." See, dude? I told you so! Argh, but once this is all finished with, I am going to turn into the most awesome flosser ever, as I never want to go through this again!
So now my tooth has only a temporary plug on it at this point (the dentist told me to try to avoid chewing on it as much as I can), already it seems so much better. He's going to fix it up properly on Monday, so for now we're still on the liquid diet. I've been warned I might notice some pain after the Novocain wears off due to the drilling, but so far it's all still good. Just such a relief after the torture of this past week, I'm finally feeling semi-human again.
I've still got to finish out the antibiotics, and my mouth tastes kind of funny at the moment, but already even as the Novocain wears off, it just feels so much better. I realise that a root canal is something you only do when you are desperate, but when you are, what sweet relief they provide! I'm so grateful I live in an era of modern medicine where dentists know how to do root canals, and that my dentist was able to do one for me today!
No comments:
Post a Comment