Root canal with oral sedation

[anxiousintexas]

Tomorrow I am having a root canal. For the last two I had oral sedation (Ativan). Both were done by general dentists, and everything was fine. Tomorrow's will be done by an endodontist, who uses triazolam for the oral sedation. There are many reasons I experience the degree of anxiety I do in connection with dental procedures. The dentist who will be doing my RC tomorrow is very nice, and I feel relatively comfortable with him. But I cannot help feeling anxious, quite anxious, especially with the change in my oral sedation to an unknown, to me, medication. His office is nice, the staff are all very nice, and my husband will be there. I have tried to be calm today, but it was difficult to eat this evening. I don't expect to get much sleep. If anyone reads this and has a word of encouragement, before tomorrow afternoon in Texas, I would be very grateful. Thank you.

 

[letsconnect]

Hi, generally speaking, triazolam is a bit more powerful than Ativan. Is there anything in particular that you're concerned about regarding triazolam?

You may like this story from someone else who had a root canal with triazolam:

IV Sedation Experiences

Read about IV sedation experiences which people have shared on Dental Fear Central over the years!

www.dentalfearcentral.org

Wishing you all the best for tomorrow ? ?!! Let us know how you got on!

 

[anxiousintexas]

Thank you! I don't have any particular concerns about triazolam; it's just new and therefore an unknown.

 

[anxiousintexas]

The root canal with the specialist is done, and it was about the worst experience I have ever had at a dentist. To begin with, the triazolam was worthless. Its effect on me was next to nothing. He gave me several injections, but as he worked it was clear not everything was numb as it should have been. It was like something from a nightmare. I am not going to go into any more detail, since someone who experiences anxiety at the dentist might read it.

 

[letsconnect]

So sorry to hear about your experience, that sounds horrific . One of the problems with oral sedation is that it can affect different people differently (and one and the same person may react differently to the same dose on different days), but it sounds like the bigger problem was poor pain control.

"Hot" (infected) teeth can sometimes be hard to numb, but even then, it should be possible to make things pain-free or put a medication in the tooth and reschedule the appointment (we've got a page on problems with numbing here).

Well done though for getting through it ?. I hope you'll be able not to let this experience put you off other dentists!

 

[anxiousintexas]

Thanks. If our regular dentist weren't exceptional among dentists, I would probably stop right here, since it doesn't hurt now. If you are interested in the details of what happened, I posted a summary of it under "Ask the Dentist" subject: "Root Canal Anesthesia Failure?" I have had hot teeth done before, and it has never been as this was. Really--you would think that the dentist would do something when the patient is crying and yelping and banging on the arm of the chair because of the pain, all the while trying to stay still, rather than just keep on as if everything is fine.

 

[letsconnect]

That sounds like a truly awful experience . So sorry that has happened to you ?. It would be good to let your dentist know about this and perhaps spare others a similar experience...

 

[anxiousintexas]

I am absolutely going to tell him!