I’ve been asked so many times how I am doing with my tooth, from email, this site and twitter, I’d like to give anyone that cares an answer, and thank you very much for caring…. For the last three & 1/2 weeks I have been to the dentist about 6 times. I have been taking pain meds that for the most part aren’t strong enough and I have been living on whipped cream & mashed potatoes. My sleep, which is always a mess, is worse than usual, because of the pain, and I’m afraid the cap and or a piece of my tooth is going to fall off in my sleep and I’ll swallow it. (ha ha, I can hear you, but that’s NOT something I wanna swallow) I can talk, but it hurts my jaw to do it too much, so I have been avoiding it when possible. Did you ever hear the saying, if it can go wrong it will? Well I not only heard it, i so now believe it!
The torture begins in the third week of February-Sore Tooth, feels like something is stuck in it, so doing lots of flossing.
My tooth breaks and hurts, cold or hot food, forget it. Have to live thru the weekend.
Mon- Dentist says I need a root canal, and crown.
My dentist doesn’t do the surgery, I have to come in a week from Tuesday, the day the specialist is in. They give me pain meds and antibiotics. My mouth, throat, cheek are killing me.
a week later- I go in, get a root canal, which is usually three "canals" drilled out and filled in, I am lucky enough to have four. So they drill four holes down into my bone. i am there for over two hours and have three novicane shots, but no gas, their machine is down.
I am supposed to come back in three weeks for the work to reconstruct my tooth and cap it.
I am in so much pain that the meds they gave me aren’t enough and they give me a new medication that blocks the feeling from the nerves to my brain. ( It’s what they give people with herpes! gaba-something)
One day later, my tooth ( the one that is now "canaled") partially breaks off.
I go back in and the tooth is looked at, determined to be okay as far as the root canal goes, but I need to get the cap done immediately instead of 3 weeks later.
Come in and get my tooth drilled , novacaine needles, my gums cut back and they make the temp cap. While they are doing it, they drop plaster partially down my throat and it gags me and I throw up. They put the cap on and i go home.
The next night, Friday, the temp crown falls off. I call the dentist answering service and they will not be open again until Monday.
The dentist calls me back on saturday and tells me to go get fixadent and put the cap back on myself. If I leave it off he says, the gums might move back and they will have to cut them again.
I put the cap back on a couple times because every time I eat anything it falls off.
Monday I go in and get the cap glued on again with no novocaine.
So here I am today, it’s tuesday. My jaw is sore and my neck and back are killing me from tossing and turning so much while I am trying to sleep.
My last appointment to get the permanent cap on is April 1st. I’m hoping that nothing else goes wrong in between now and then. And that I can get the cap and be done with the dentist for at least the rest of the year.
Oh, and I can’t forget the wonderful new charge on my credit card for $2300. sigh :{
Sorry to hear that. 🙁 Ask around for a few different opinions. I’ve heard many root canals are not necessary and they only do it to get the insurance money. With so much new technology, there must be newer advances too to avoid the root canal and be a less painful procedure.
You got my prayers! Sorry you’re hurting!
Love,
Shelley
i HATE the dentist..i am a dental chicken…hope you feel better soon :)-mm
Get well soon, dear, the world needs you.
By the way, dentistry is a well established form of torture. It reminds me of the movie Marathon Man starring Dustin Hoffman. In the most infamous scene of the movie, an exiled Nazi played by Sir Laurence Olivier who believes Dustin Hoffman is hiding a stolen diamond in his tooth, tortures Hoffman by doing a root canal without anaesthesia on him while repeatedly asking him: Is it safe? (referring to the diamond.)
‘Is it safe?’ was voted as the #70 movie quote by the American Film Institute (out of 100).
Seems to me like you need a new dentist.
Broke my tooth on a Wednesday night. Saw my dentist on Thursday morning, was started on antiobiotics and given pain meds with an appointment for root canal on Monday morning. I lost count of my pain shots. Something like 6 or 7. I wasn’t fucking around. Anytime I felt pressure I wanted another shot. Even with all that I still had one moment of pain that left me shaky. Intense burning sprawl of pain through my jaw.
A week later prepping and molds for crown. I have my temp on now. It hasn’t budged. Two weeks to wait for the porcelain crown.
I did have some soreness for a few days after the root canal. Just took a Tylenol #3 every night before sleep.
Sorry you had such a shitty experience. I’ve had the same dentist my whole life and have zero fear. I’m sure that helps. Anxiety only heightens pain.
Get better soon, Cindi. Pudding is good for sustenance.
You definitely need a new dentist. The med you refer to “gaba” something, is gabapentin, a very dangerous drug that’s being given to you way “off label” – it’s not designed for dental pain, it’s a heavy drug, also known as Neurontin (do a search, you don’t want to be on this stuff), and the only reason your dentist is playing this pain game with you is because doctors and dentists today are being bullied and pressured not to prescribe appropriate pain meds for their patients because they don’t understand that a short-term (and much needed) appropriate med is not going to get the patient addicted! Your dentist is an ignorant ass/fool and YOU the patient need to go in there and demand proper pain management. From reading your post it’s obvious you are being undertreated and he doesn’t hesitate to put you on gabapentin but if you requested short term oxycodone or hydrocodone for your very severe dental issues (short term) he’d pee his pants and act like you were asking for heroin. It is YOUR RIGHT to be appropriately treated. Do a search on gabapentin (which btw, isn’t a drug per se for herpes but basically for a range of nerve pain and it’s simply not for dental pain. Print out the risky side effects of gabapentin also known as neurontin and question why on earth he thinks he has the right to prescribe this and further endanger your health and well being with such an off label use of the drug. It’s all about the idiocy and rampant fear doctors today are being imbued with by a professional that cares more for covering their own butts than the welfare and legit pain issues of their patients. I hope this helps – good luck, you deserve better.