Root Canal After Filling?

[APhobicQueen]

Hi all,

I'm hoping a dentist here can just clarify a few things that have been keeping me up at night with anxiety! I would call my dental practice but I'm on a rotating list of dentists at the moment, so I'm not sure if they'd be able to fully answer or not.

Two days ago I had two fillings done on two of my teeth, both cavities were rather deep ones and at the end of the appointment the dentist told me to monitor for pain and said it I felt any sort of pain keeping me up at night then I needed to call back and come in because I needed a root canal. This, of course, sent me into a total panic which has led to me feeling like I do feel pain (but I'm pretty sure I don't? I think I'm just imagining it. Perhaps some irritation and sensitivity but nothing like true actual pain.)

My two questions are

1) since they decided to go ahead and proceed with a filling first, does that mean they expect the chances that they got all of the decay out of the cavity and it's been taken care of are high? that the chances of a root canal are there but low?

and

2) is there a timeline where say, after a certain period of time if I'm not in deep pain we can assume the filling has worked and there's no need for a root canal? If that's the case, what would be the period of time I'd be waiting for?

Thank you!

 

[Gordon]

1) Yes. There's no absolutely reliable way of knowing how healthy the dental pulp is after it's been exposed to the bacterial toxins in a deep cavity. Most dentists have a kind of gut feeling based on their experience as to whether it'll be OK or not but you can't be certain.

2) A week or two. The odd twinge within that period is to be expected and not a problem, but if you needed a root canal doing, you'd know about it pretty quickly.

 

[APhobicQueen]

Thank you @Gordon! Really interesting that despite all of this technology we have (very good tech too) dentists still have to rely on their gut instincts and experience about some things! That timeline matches up with what I was already thinking which was around a week so it's nice to know I wasn't off on that