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root canal questions for those with one

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KylalaKitty

Junior member
Joined
Nov 1, 2014
Messages
17
Location
USA
I may or may not need one but I have some questions still first before I jump in and talk to my doctor. For those who had one, do you still experience any pain or sensitivity to touch, cold, or heat? How long have you had it? Did you also get a crown? How long did your procedure take? Isn't the point of a root canal is to kill the tooth so there isn't any pain anymore? How do you know if it failed and the tooth just needs removed? Anyone have one fail :confused: ? Sorry for all the questions. As much info provided would be appreciated.
 
My first root canal will be next week :cry: I will answer you Tuesday after my appointment.
 
Without exception the following are true:
1. After a proper root canal there is absolutely no pain with hot, cold, or sweet food.
2. It is possible to have pain with touch. Typically sensitive to biting with rapid decrease after 48 hours but may continue for awhile.
 
I've had 4. None are sensitive anymore (the longest sensitivity lasted afterward was a week, some had none at al after). All were extremely sensitive and painful prior to the RCT. All four have crowns as they all had extensive restorations (fillings) prior to the RCT and they are all on 2nd molars which have to endure a lot of chewing force. Each of them took about 90 minutes in 1 appointment (though this is not always how it is done). I had plenty of opportunities to rest my jaw during that time. The crowns were each done in 2 appointments (a 90 minute appointment and a 30 minute appointment), but this can also vary.

All 4 have been successful; they have all been done by specialists (endodontists) and we're all done by someone different. One of them has a canal that the endo could not completely clean out, but so far, so good (it's been several years). All the crowns were done my regular dentist, so I don't know much about how other dentists do them.

They were all pain-free during to procedure.

Let me know if you have other questions.
 
I may or may not need one but I have some questions still first before I jump in and talk to my doctor. For those who had one, do you still experience any pain or sensitivity to touch, cold, or heat? How long have you had it? Did you also get a crown? How long did your procedure take? Isn't the point of a root canal is to kill the tooth so there isn't any pain anymore? How do you know if it failed and the tooth just needs removed? Anyone have one fail :confused: ? Sorry for all the questions. As much info provided would be appreciated.

Hi KylalaKitty!
I am in the middle of getting a root canal. It was started on Tuesday and will be finished this Friday. The point of root canal is not to "kill the tooth" it is to remove the pulp and nerve which is already either dead or dying or infected and about to die and beyond recovery so that it does not just rot away and feed the bacteria that allow abscesses to form.
I already have a crown on the tooth that is being root canaled but if I did not have the crown I would be getting one because it is a molar and had very little tooth structure left due to a large filling. I no longer experience the excruciating sensitivity to cold. Mine was so sensitive that even room temperature mouth wash was too cold. anything below body temperature was unbearable to me. I never had heat sensitivity. My procedure (to numb me, open the tooth, remove everything from the tooth, stop for occasional pictures to see if the file reached the bottom of the canal, and put a dressing in the tooth took about 80 minutes but that is because Novocain takes a while to work on me. It has no sensitivity to touch but I can not chew on it yet because my procedure is not finished.
How you would know that it failed would be if it continued to abscess and cause pain due to a missed canal. sometimes a root canal can be retreated it does not always need removal. even if it has been retreated and still fails sometimes a surgery can be performed where the root tip can be removed and you can still keep the tooth. If the tooth is cracked all the way down through to the root then it is beyond repair and would have to be removed. Or if it is impossible to get to all the tiny accessory canals and continues to have symptoms it would be considered failed and would be removed.
 
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