Root Canal Terror

[alliesph]

I'm so glad I found this website.. I know that dentists are very universally disliked but I have such a nice dentist and I put that poor man and myself through so much grief...

I've had two root canals and I'm only 23. One of them, I was in pain from the tooth for over a year before I finally went in to get it fixed when the pain was completely unbearable - it was so bad because it was infected, and as a result the novocaine didn't work so I had a root canal done without anesthetic. I'm probably lucky to be able to list that and not something far worse as the most painful experience of my life but it was a complete nightmare from start to finish.

So you would think I would learn my lesson and when I have a cavity that I can stick my tongue in the hole causing me pain, I would go to the dentist right away - but no. Again I procrastinate until it's again unbearable and finally go in and surprise surprise, I have to get another root canal because I've waited too long.
This one-two punch of amazing dentist experiences led to my dentist and I coming up with a game plan of fixing all my little cavities since I have really really good oral hygiene habits (I seriously brush 2-3 times a day and floss every day, although when I was younger I did not.. hence my current situation) EXCEPT that I don't have the most important oral hygiene habit which is going to see my dentist regularly to prevent these huge problems from popping up.

Anyways so all my cavities finally fixed, last April my dentist and I parted ways for a few months under the understanding that both my root canals only had temporary fillings and I had to fix them permanently sometime in the near future. All summer I tortured myself knowing I had to go in but too anxious to make an appointment even though I KNOW that the sooner I make an appointment, the better it will be for so so so many reasons. I even work in the same building as my dentist so it's not difficult at all to make an appointment or find time to go in. I have no excuse. Actually I have one teeny tiny excuse, I ran into my dentist once and he said that as long as my teeth aren't hurting me, I don't have to come in right away. UGH. He should have said, come into my office right now and we're booking an appointment. If I have the appointment made, I'll show up to it!

Fast forward to the present - I can tell that my temporary fillings are degrading (UGH) so I finally went in and made an appointment! Which I was so proud of myself for doing! And I was talking to him about how neither of my bad teeth have really bothered me at all (hence why I've been able to procrastinate so easily on going in)... but I clearly jinxed myself. I can tell that one of my fillings is pretty much non-existent at this point, and I think that tooth is now infected again. I am already prepared for the worst case scenario of having to get this tooth removed - it's way awkwardly in the back of my mouth and really having it out of my life would be a GD blessing except for the fact that it signals a sad and toothless future for my poor mouth. But I just don't want it to hurt so much again.. and I feel so bad for my poor dentist who probably wonders what is wrong with me for not getting myself together and staying on top of this problem when I should clearly know by now that me putting off going to the dentist is THE cause of all my tooth problems.

At least my other tooth hasn't started bothering me yet. At least I have the appointment made and I went to my doctor to get antibiotics so that if there is an infection it should be gone by the time of my appointment next week.

I hate having such an completely self-inflicted fear/problem/whatever you want to call it.

 

[brit]

I finally went in to get it fixed when the pain was completely unbearable - it was so bad because it was infected, and as a result the novocaine didn't work so I had a root canal done without anesthetic. I'm probably lucky to be able to list that and not something far worse as the most painful experience of my life but it was a complete nightmare from start to finish.

Don't be so hard on yourself - you had a root canal from hell experience which should be avoidable with modern techniques.
See below.

At least my other tooth hasn't started bothering me yet. At least I have the appointment made and I went to my doctor to get antibiotics so that if there is an infection it should be gone by the time of my appointment next week.

Very sensible but maybe you should consider moving to a dentist who would know how to do this stuff without expecting you to put up with lots of pain just because infection is present. There are advanced local anaesthesia techniques for getting even 'hot infected' teeth numb. 'All teeth can technically be got numb but not all dentists can get all teeth numb all the time'

The modern anaesthetics are supposed to better at coping with infection as well and there are stronger ones available which maybe your dentist didn't use.

Ideally with a problematic root canal you would get it treated by an endodontist who is likely to have more experience in numbing infected teeth effectively than a general dentist but even if that were not practical on the day, you could still have just gone far enough to relieve your pain i.e. reduce the pressure and then gone away to take antibiotics...there was no need to do the whole thing if numbing where inadequate even if in extreme pain from toothache when you walked in.

Also had you chosen a dentist with sedation options originally - these could have been immediately used...even nitrous would have made it less of an ordeal for you.
So it is not really 100% your fault, had you chosen a dentist with a greater emphasis on always providing painfree treatment, it could all have gone down quite differently.

It is very important that you can now go for treatment without letting this bad expereince put you off, so I think finding a practice with sedation options and maybe getting these unfinished rcts done by a specialist (endodontist) would go a long way to helping you with that.

I also would not return to a dentist who had put me through hell because I know there are always ways of avoiding that.

Most posters on here do not 'universally dislike' dentists as you say, we find dentists we like and trust not to inflict unnecessary pain and then stick with them. Yours may be nice and may have done his best to help you but I think it likely someone else (especially an endo) could have given you a better experience.

I have had a couple of root canals and both were painless - happily this is more and more the norm.

 

[brit]

Since these two teeth with the temporaries have given you no grief, indicating that the nerve was more or less completely removed - they should be easy to numb. Some would even say you don't need LA necessarily if the nerve is gone but most people find it easier to relax if they have one.

I think I'd still get an endo to finish them both if I were you and save your dentist (who did the little fillings - were they painless as they should be?) for regular checkups from now on.

 

[alliesph]

Thank you for your response! Actually, my dentist did send me to an endodontist to finish my nightmare root canal although I think he did take the majority of it out himself - but the endo still didn't completely finish the job. maybe I will use my appointment with the dentist next week to get my "good" tooth fixed and make an appointment with the endo to get my "bad" one... most likely extracted.

Thanks again for your very helpful response

 

[brit]

make an appointment with the endo to get my "bad" one... most likely extracted.

Endos don't usually extract teeth, if you are in the USA an oral surgeon would do (complex) extractions and some General dentists do them too but it should be done painfree whoever does it. That is the way to avoid dental fear and avoidance. Doing an extraction on the tooth could be a lot more technically straightforward than an endodontic treatment so a General dentist may be happy to do it.

Maybe you need a different endo as well - there are many more of them around in USA so they may not all be as reliably good as in countries where they are thinner on the ground.