Afraid waiting to have root canal done is going to kill me

[Delilahmercury1121]

My phone is close to dying, so I may have to make this quick and possibly come back later to add more maybe.

First, I have read on here that tooth infections don't spread to the rest of your body. Does that go for infections under teeth that don't have cavities? So, maybe not an infection from the inside of the mouth. I don't even know where this infection is coming from! They said must have been a trauma to the tooth. The tooth looks fine sitting in my mouth, but x-ray shows something going on underneath.

I definitely feel that I am all over the place with this, and apologize for that and also thank anyone who takes the time to read this and possibly respond.

I have never had a root canal, and tend to think the worst, so I am very nervous. The clinic I am going to is booking into the middle of April, and my husband leaves next week to go overseas until the middle of May. We have small kids whom I will not have childcare for, I will likely have to wait 2 months to get this root canal done. I don't have any pain, and was shocked to learn I even need this procedure. After googling etc, I am very nervous about something terrible happening between now and whenever I get this tooth taken care of. Especially with my husband being gone and so far away, any kind of awful symptoms or emergency situation would be disastrous because of the lack of childcare we have.

Specifically I am afraid of this mystery infection under my tooth spreading and ending up with sepsis or something like that. I am also just nervous all the way around.

This phone is on 2%, so I am going to go ahead and post now. Thank you again im advance if anyone has any insight. Phone dying may be good for now so I will be forced off my internet "research" for now. 🙃. I am looking forward to maybe some responses on here though. 💞

 

[Delilahmercury1121]

Also in case this matters, I think I can see a slight discoloration to this problem tooth. (That I didn't even know was a problem). No pain, but it's slightly darker, like a little more yellow-tinted? Is this a terrible sign?

 

[Gordon]

Trying to follow this as best I can... apologies if I miss something.
1) The tooth may have become non-vital because of trauma, not decay. It's not unusual. This would explain the darkening you've noticed
2) There's no reason to expect anything terrible to happen in the next few months, the tooth has been like this for some time I imagine. You won't get sepsis from it.

 

[Anne2021]

@Delilahmercury1121 If it were me, I would consider a second opinion before I would do a root canal for a non-painful, mystery infection. I'm not saying it's not possible or true, but before I would do something invasive, irreversible, and expensive, I would just make sure it needed to happen. I feel for your anxiety and your concern about something happening when you have no child care. I wish you all the best.

 

[Delilahmercury1121]

Trying to follow this as best I can... apologies if I miss something.
1) The tooth may have become non-vital because of trauma, not decay. It's not unusual. This would explain the darkening you've noticed
2) There's no reason to expect anything terrible to happen in the next few months, the tooth has been like this for some time I imagine. You won't get sepsis from it.

Thank you so so much for your response!! This has helped me feel quite a bit better about it.

 

[Delilahmercury1121]

@Delilahmercury1121 If it were me, I would consider a second opinion before I would do a root canal for a non-painful, mystery infection. I'm not saying it's not possible or true, but before I would do something invasive, irreversible, and expensive, I would just make sure it needed to happen. I feel for your anxiety and your concern about something happening when you have no child care. I wish you all the best.

Thank you!! I thought of this too. I called the dentist I had seen last year (he no longer accepts my insurance), this new clinic sent the x-rays they took to him, and he said "without question" this tooth needs a root canal. I only saw this dentist a few times, for a cleaning/exam, and a couple fillings. He was alright, but a few things happened during the fillings that also made me decide I wouldn't go back to him. Well, anyway, should I check around some more maybe?

The tooth looks ok, dentist said it "looked just fine sitting in your mouth", I think I see some discoloration, my husband says he doesn't. On the x-ray, there is shadowing under the tooth. I am pretty confused about it, because it looks like the inside of the tooth is ok too, just the shadowing under it is "something going on", according to the hygienist. Of course I haven't been to dental school, so I don't know a lot, but I am pretty perplexed about this whole thing!

 

[Dr. Daniel]

Hi,

I would definitely not rush to have a root canal treatment right now. First of all, deciding to have one only because of an X ray, is professional. AN X ray is just one evidence and a professional dentist should be able to gather more evidence (performing cold test, palpating, tapping and more). The fact that you don't feel anything is also a sign for me that a root canal treatment might just be an over treatment, and even if you do need a root canal treatment, waiting a few more months will not change much as far as the tooth's condition nor your general health is concerned (as long as you are relatively healthy).
It is perfectly OK to tell the dentist that you want to wait a bit with the RCT, and either get a second opinion or make another X ray in a year time.
Even though I am writing this based only on what you have told us, without checking your tooth, I feel confident enough to share with you my opinion.

 

[Anne2021]

@Delilahmercury1121 I'm glad I didn't reply before seeing Dr. Daniel's response. That sounds like some great advice.

 

[Delilahmercury1121]

Hi,

I would definitely not rush to have a root canal treatment right now. First of all, deciding to have one only because of an X ray, is professional. AN X ray is just one evidence and a professional dentist should be able to gather more evidence (performing cold test, palpating, tapping and more). The fact that you don't feel anything is also a sign for me that a root canal treatment might just be an over treatment, and even if you do need a root canal treatment, waiting a few more months will not change much as far as the tooth's condition nor your general health is concerned (as long as you are relatively healthy).
It is perfectly OK to tell the dentist that you want to wait a bit with the RCT, and either get a second opinion or make another X ray in a year time.
Even though I am writing this based only on what you have told us, without checking your tooth, I feel confident enough to share with you my opinion.

Thank you so much for sharing your opinion, I appreciate it a lot, and it helps put me more at ease with this whole thing.

I had an appt yesterday at the clinic to get a filling... different things happened that made me even more uncomfortable with the root canal, and maybe even going to this clinic in general. Our insurance just switched, so I may be able to visit another dentist sometime relatively soon to see about another opinion. I think if I did end up needing the rct, I may want to do it elsewhere anyway. The filling yesterday was done by an intern, and it was a little rough. Then the assistant told me that it depends on which intern is performing the rct, on how long it may take. Yikes. I wasn't even aware that an intern would be doing it in the first place. Even yesterday, I was under the impression one dentist I had already met would be doing my filling, I didn't know until I was in the chair that it would be an intern I hadn't met before. While I was in the chair, the intern made a couple comments that the cavities were so small, she wasn't even sure she should be filling them, so she went to double check multiple times. That makes me think too maybe the root canal is a little much right now.

I appreciate this forum so much. I have had so much anxiety over all of this! I wake up at nighttime thinking and worrying about all of it. Sheesh. Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to read this post and post replies. 💞

 

[Gordon]

Fill me in a bit please, what's a dental intern?

 

[Delilahmercury1121]

@Gordon ok I just looked at the clinic's website so that I could give you accurate info. The interns there are students in their 4th year of dental school.

 

[Delilahmercury1121]

The dentist who told me I need the root canal is finished with school though, she is the clinic's "Dental Director."

 

[Gordon]

What a strange setup. We have a sort of similar thing where students work in community clinics under supervision of a qualified dentist, but they are very closely supervised indeed, the patients are very well aware that students will be treating them and they get the treatment free
The treatment in these clinics is generally done to a fairly high standard, you don't want to be teaching students bad habits!

 

[Delilahmercury1121]

Yes, I do believe this clinic has some kinks to iron out! It looks like they just started this with the students this past September. I could definitely share some bad habits this particular intern is probably picking up! 🤪. After the third time I told her I was feeling "zings" while she was drilling, she got in my face and said "then you're feeling it!". 😬. Yes I am, please numb me some more! Sheesh.

Anyway, I made a probably bad decision and decided to Google some more about this tooth deal. When I was at clinic this week I asked the assistant to show me the x-ray again, and there is a dark shadow like to the bottom/side of this tooth...from my googling! And I believe the dentist mentioned... this is bone loss? The shadow is fairly large compared to pics I pull up on Google. A very small part of it looked like it touches the bottom of the tooth, the majority of the shadow is between two teeth, and to the side of this tooth they say needs a root canal. Well while googling, I came across..."lesions", "malignancy", "cancer". 😳. I think I am freaking out since this isn't a typical deep cavity in the tooth needing a root canal, there's something else weird going, so now my mind is like "well since it's already a weird situation, maybe it's even more weird and I have some sort of mouth cancer.". Is this likely? I wish I had a copy of the x-ray I could share here!!

I did find an endodontist that takes my new insurance, and made an appt for May 25. Part of my mind is still freaking out that I will end up in excruciating pain or something before then 😬. Gah sorry, thank you for reading.

 

[Delilahmercury1121]

Ok also in my brain...how is a root canal through the center of the tooth going to fix a problem like to the side of the tooth? Will it work like that??

 

[Delilahmercury1121]

I am probably going way too far with this...this link kind of shows more what my x-ray looked like. The periodontal abscess one, however the shadow on mine was larger than this pic. I could be super wrong because I am not a dentist and don't even know how to read x-rays, would a root canal fix something like this though?

How to differentiate between Acute Alveolar Abscess and Periodontal Abscess

Acute apical abscess is also known as Acute alveolar abscess which is the localized collection of pus in the alveolar bone at the root apex of the affected tooth. It is caused when the infection extends through the apical foramen into the peri-radicular tissue. Periodontal Abscess is caused due...

www.juniordentist.com

Blah. I never should have started this tonight. What are the chances this is some kind of cancer?

 

[Gordon]

What are the chances this is some kind of cancer?

Zero.

 

[Gordon]

Ok also in my brain...how is a root canal through the center of the tooth going to fix a problem like to the side of the tooth? Will it work like that??

OH boy, this really needs an essay to explain to a lay person... I'll try my best but it's not a simple subject...

To begin with. For whatever reason, the pulp (the soft squishy bit in the inside of the tooth) is dead. There is no blood supply and it's basically a large lump of hamburger meat.

This means that your body can't get immune system cells to the area. Bacteria will invade the dead tissue eventually, start to break it down and flood out of the root apex of the tooth into the space round the apex.

Depending on the local anatomy they tend to follow the line of least resistance, so they can go at various angles to the root.

Once they get out into the spaces round the apex, your immune system swings into action. White cells and other good things flood into the area, killing everything in range. Bone cells are collateral damage here and the area tends to get a bit bigger. This is the shadow you see on an x-ray film.
Sometimes the bugs are slow growing, the immune system wins easily and the area stays static, the area doesn't grow and there are few symptoms. Faster growing or more resilient bugs then the area grows, pressure builds and it gets painful.

Because there's no blood supply to the inside of the tooth where the bugs are coming from, then the whole thing can go on for ages. Root treatment cleans, sterilises and then seals up the canals of the teeth to get rid of the bugs.

 

[Delilahmercury1121]

OH boy, this really needs an essay to explain to a lay person... I'll try my best but it's not a simple subject...

To begin with. For whatever reason, the pulp (the soft squishy bit in the inside of the tooth) is dead. There is no blood supply and it's basically a large lump of hamburger meat.

This means that your body can't get immune system cells to the area. Bacteria will invade the dead tissue eventually, start to break it down and flood out of the root apex of the tooth into the space round the apex.

Depending on the local anatomy they tend to follow the line of least resistance, so they can go at various angles to the root.

Once they get out into the spaces round the apex, your immune system swings into action. White cells and other good things flood into the area, killing everything in range. Bone cells are collateral damage here and the area tends to get a bit bigger. This is the shadow you see on an x-ray film.
Sometimes the bugs are slow growing, the immune system wins easily and the area stays static, the area doesn't grow and there are few symptoms. Faster growing or more resilient bugs then the area grows, pressure builds and it gets painful.

Because there's no blood supply to the inside of the tooth where the bugs are coming from, then the whole thing can go on for ages. Root treatment cleans, sterilises and then seals up the canals of the teeth to get rid of the bugs.

Wow. Thank you so much for explaining all of that! You are amazing! I really appreciate you taking the time to answer and lay it all out like that. That helps me understand a lot more what is going on, and it doesn't seem as scary...like it's not such an odd crazy thing my body is doing and I need to beware of what other nonsense my body will get up to! I suppose I have an over active imagination. Actually, it sounds like my body is doing an ok job since I'm not having pain or anything else with this.

So once this is all taken care of, will the bone loss...grow back? Or is it just gone now?

Thank you so so much again. I love this site!!!

 

[Gordon]

So once this is all taken care of, will the bone loss...grow back? Or is it just gone now?

It'll grow back

If you're interested in learning a bit more about your body, then I recommend this book, which is a really good explanation of our incredible immune system, it's not too technical and very easy to read:
"Immune: A Journey into the Mysterious System That Keeps You Alive" by Philipp Dettmer,
ISBN: 978-1529-36068-4