Root Canal Work

I'm in the process of having one done on the NHS. The first bit takes a while. She had to drill out the decay, open the root canals and remove the root best she could. Then they pack it with something called 'glide' (which I believe disolves any bits of root left) and fill it temporarily. I have to go back for round two in a month.

It hasn't hurt so far ( but reading this thread I might just have been lucky!) and it only cost £46 from the NHS.

Its nothing to worry about really
 
Happened to me once. The dentist injected me, all was numb, the drilling was fine and then they put a barbed file thing into each root cavaity to remove the "dead" root. First two fine, never felt a thing. 3rd one I nearly hit the ceiling! I have never felt such pain before or since.

Dentist just said "perhaps that one isn't dead yet" and then injected directly into the root cavity which still hurt a lot.

After that it was fine.
 
I once had it and whilst the dentist was in there he discovered further work that needed doing, he didn't think it was going to be too painful so he didn't sedate the area of extra work in an effort to save time. Well, he was very wrong, I was writhing in pain for about 15 minutes (which felt like 15 hours) and it was the worst 15 minutes of my life. He didn't charge me for the treatment and gave me a sincere apology, he also gave me the next few check ups free of charge. But still, it was horrible.
 
i was having a little trouble with a molar. went to an NHS dentist and he completely botched the job. he was a foreigner and could barely explain to me what he was doing
so now my tooth is twice as bad as it was and i've had to book in with a private surgery.

i'll never compromise my teeth again
 
As mentioned, the only things you need to be worried about are the bill and the jaw ache ~ 45mins per treatment.

If you've got an abscess, it can be a bit painful, but nothing to worry about at all.

I've had 3 done now, I hate going to the dentist (why I've had to have 3) and it's much better than having a tooth out. That still the worst IMO.
 
Question for Scouse, being as you are a dentist, what's a bridge?

It's one of the things my dentist said would be an option if they extracted rather than crowned the tooth that he wanted to extract. (I got him to attempt a crown instead, and it seems to be holding.)
 
optitech-uk said:
One of my teeth went bad and I had the choice of a root canal or get it took out. I decided to get it took out as a root canal didn't sound too good at the time. I was in so much pain I just wanted it OUT.
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My (NHS and Polish) dentist was not keen on taking my knackered teeth out at all. He said that if you can save the tooth then you should save the tooth, although I was in so much pain at the time like you I just wanted it OUT OF MY DAMN GOB :D I bowed to his superior knowledge and consequently still have my full complement of molars.

However the new NHS dentist that has just opened up in my Mum's village has a policy of "There's only one place for a knackered tooth, and it's not in the mouth!"
In the last month she has taken 2 of my sister's, 2 of my mum's and 2 of her boyfriend's teeth out!
 
Red_knight said:
Question for Scouse, being as you are a dentist, what's a bridge?

It's one of the things my dentist said would be an option if they extracted rather than crowned the tooth that he wanted to extract. (I got him to attempt a crown instead, and it seems to be holding.)
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A bridge is one way of replacing a missing tooth, the teeth/tooth either side of the bridge (sometimes just one, sometimes both) are crowned, and the crowns hold another tooth between them - essentially doing exactly what it says on the tin; 'a bridge'.

One downside of a bridge is that sometimes healthy teeth need to be shaped to have a crown fitted on them, and that can then lead to the nerve dying in these teeth. Not so much a worry if they have large fillings in already.
Hope that helps a little, I know its not a fantastic explanation but I'm absolutely shattered and should be heading to bed!
 
Mines been done over two sessions. Had my first one done a couple of weeks ago, still waiting for the second half to be completed as I keep delaying due to work commitments etc. You only feel slight twinges, just relax and dont clock watch and it'll be over in no time at all.
 
djmc0 said:
Be a man, wait till the nerve (pulp) dies.
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I did that, I was in agony for around three weeks. Then one day I noticed a tiny hole in the tooth. A couple of days later I bit into some bread and the tooth cracked. The dentist said the pain was the root dying. He did three root canals on one tooth. I fell asleep during the procedure, he gave me two injections before and I didn't feel any discomfort. Bill was around £500 but he said as I had been going to him for years that I didn't have to pay if I joined the dental insurance plan where I pay £24 a month. Private too, wouldn't ever use NHS for my teeth. I've had the same guy for 18 years.
 
scouse said:
Not so much a worry if they have large fillings in already.

Hope that helps a little, I know its not a fantastic explanation but I'm absolutely shattered and should be heading to bed!
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Thank you for that, good enough explanation for this lay-person anyway.

The main quibble I have with my NHS dentist is that he doesn't explain stuff. My previous dentist would talk about what he was doing and so on.
 
i recommend using nuerofen plus for toothache, it's the only drug that helped me, Also root canal isn't that bad, they numb it all so much just make sure you tell them if you can still feel it!
 
Willbo said:
Found out on Friday I'm going to need root canal work at the dentist in a weeks time. After a couple of days of bad toothache I went to the dentists who gave me the news after a few xrays etc.

Has anyone recently had a root canal procedure at the dentist? Really worried about this and how its going to feel.

The dentist gave me some tables called Amoxicillin to help get rid of any infection in the tooth and root. And i've had to take a lot of pain killers til it all calms down which its finally done now the Amoxicillin has kicked in so I've now gone from a stabbing in the tooth to more of a gentle throb.
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It's fine, I've had one and like others have said it sounds worse than it is.

It just feels like they're mining for gold when they do the drilling. Other than that it's not a lot different to a normal filling.
 
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