Root Canals Do Not Hurt

Do you know what causes a root canal to go bad? 🤔 There are several plausible explanations for pain where there should be no pain. How about a canal that was never excavated? 

‘Tis true. Hmm. 

Root Canal 101: some teeth can have up to six canals. This particular tooth, my tooth, had five canals. The one easiest to get to was bypassed, perhaps in favor of the more difficult canal. Ten or fifteen years down the road BAM 💥 mama looks like a linebacker on steroids, misses work, hurts like the dickens (dickens are what?), and pays a pretty penny for a do-over. 

So today the wacky hidden canal was drilled and filled (my laymen’s term, not Dr. Endodontist) with medication, giving it a bit of time to heal, as it is still infected. 

Nitrous...I wasn’t treated to nitrous until my late thirties, early forties, even with vast dental history. Where have you been all my life, was my first thought. My second thought was all mom’s should be fitted for a backpack of nitrous while raising teenagers. (This goes along with all mom’s go to heaven, a free pass.) You should hear what goes on in my head during a dental procedure. Just sayin’. 

Anyway, as I was lying there, nitrous kicking in, I reminisced about previous procedures. And I thought about how many times assistants act as if they own nitrous or are paying for it themselves. Hey chick, are you sucking the mask after hours? When you’re in the chair, getting de-nerved, you can have some of the ‘my blood pressure is a perfect 118/78 because I finally relaxed’ juice. My doctor and his assistant were wonderful today, as have been the majority of my past dentist and assistants. This was purely a high as a kite observation. If you need dental work, it is, after all, indicative of overall health, request the nitrous, okay? The trip to The Chair won’t seem near as bad. 

Future dental students: your patient will be very proud you found the elusive fifth canal, just don’t skip the obvious, don’t forget to go back and clean the sucker.

All canals matter. 

#savethetooth #painshouldntlastforever #imjustfinenopain