Onto a more serious subject, one that is on everyone’s…

Onto a more serious subject, one that is on everyone’s “I would rather be (fill in the blank) than have a root canal!” list. It’s the root canal! YAY!!

I am some what of a root canal expert. I’ve assisted the doctor in his efforts to give people root canals and I’ve had 1…2…skip quite a few…6 of them myself. None of my root canals were from cavities, so it wasn’t lack of dental care or waiting too long to get my fillings done. No, like I said before, I was in a cheer accident and got kneed in the mouth and it started a long saga of root canals and now an implant. I also had a dance “accident” where I did a jump and I was supposed to land in a push-up position, but instead I had jammed my chin into the floor. It was fun, and even better it was within the first 20 seconds of a dance I was performing at a competition. Yes, I’m that talented. But it helped crack a few teeth and lead to some crowns and at least one root canal as well.

But let’s get back on target. The ONLY reasons why a root canal would hurt these days is if you didn’t get Novocaine or, if the nerve was so hot that the Novocaine doesn’t work. What I mean by “so hot” is that it got infected or severely damaged in some way that it doesn’t respond to Novocaine. In that case, it’s either grin and bare it, or take antibiotics until the tooth responds to numbing. Either fix for a hot tooth isn’t quite pleasant. This is where root canals get their bad names.

They’re not scary. Of course I say that now. My first one I was freaked out! I had to go see a specialist and it was my first time seeing a different dentist than the one I’ve seen all of my life. I was also freaked out about what the experience was going to be like. I hadn’t had much done in my mouth at that point either. I think we fixed one cracked tooth (not with a crown). On top of all of this, I was being sent to the specialist because it was a “complicated” root canal. Meaning it was going to take my dentist too long to get it done because there was a complication. Mind you, this is my front tooth, and front teeth are the easiest to do root canals on. There’s only one “canal” for the nerve to go through (in most cases), so they are the preferred root canals for most involved. So, add the factor that it was an easy root canal that my dentist refused to do, and the fact that the most work I’ve had in my mouth was a filling, I was scared.

More on this on the next blog.