Root Canal (oh yes, another root canal thread!!)

Gone Drinking

So went to the dentist yesterday with pain my tooth. She did some cold sensation tests then took an x-ray and showed me that the root is dead and that the dark kinda area around the root is an infection. Now, i'm pretty sure she said an abscess.

So she went on to say i need a root canal, explained the treatment and said €300 bob for the root canal, tooth filled etc. She's going to ring me today to set up the appointment (sometime next week).

I've had an abscess before though, and they wouldn't touch it, till it was treated with tablets for a few days, because it can spread around the mouth. My dentist never mentioned killing off the abscess first.

I'm going to ask her today when she rings anyway, but just out of curiousness, i thought id post here.

Cheers

(btw, this is my first root canal, and i'm ****ting la bricks, my mates mother said its worse than giving birth, hurah)

Big_G

Res, our resident root canal specialist, may want to weigh in on this one.
My opinion, and AFAIK the current concensus is, that antibiotics are rarely indicated in dental infection.

To treat an abcess, remove the source of the infection which is the dead, liquefied nerve tissue within the tooth. In order to do this, either remove the tooth or do root canal therapy.

Antibiotics are there for extreme cases, or when the dentist doesn't have time to do a full root canal treatment. And in those cases, they are only to limit the size of the infection, not to eliminate it.

No need to be sh*tting bricks by the way. The nerve is likely already dead, so there should be no pain from it.

Gone Drinking

Thanks for the advice G.

The root is dead, she told me that, plus i felt nothing with the cold test.. but its still sore. Worse today than it was yesterday.

Just looking forward to getting it sorted and out of pain.

Big_G

The pain you likely experiencing is build up of fluid pressure in the ligament that joins the tooth to the bone, called the periodontal ligament. This is due to inflammation. It should be relieved once the root canal treatment has been performed.

res ipsa

I would agree with Big G.

ACUTE spreading infection would require antibiotics, this is where your neck(lymph nodes) or eye is involved and you are very unwell and swollen.

CHRONIC low grade infection does not require antibiotics and a root canal treatment alone will eliminate the infection and inflammation. You may not even be aware of a problem with the tooth.

Dont listen to the old wives tales about root canal treatment, it is a virtually painless procedure with modern technology, however you may like to take pre-emptive painkillers 45 mins before your appointment if your dentist is ok with this.

eth0_

res ipsa wrote: »

Dont listen to the old wives tales about root canal treatment, it is a virtually painless procedure with modern technology, however you may like to take pre-emptive painkillers 45 mins before your appointment if your dentist is ok with this.

I had root canal treatment on a tooth with an abscess, and I can honestly say it was the most painful thing I have ever experienced in my life - and that was with lots of anaesthesia.

Redzer7

I had root canal treatment done a few weeks ago, it wasn't to bad tbh, maybe it wasn't as bad as the case here as I didn't really feel to much.
So I went the other day and found out that it still could get infected and that they would have to do the treatment again .

res ipsa

eth0_ wrote: »

I had root canal treatment on a tooth with an abscess, and I can honestly say it was the most painful thing I have ever experienced in my life - and that was with lots of anaesthesia.

thats a shame etho,I would not do work on a tooth that I could not get numb.

Just out of interest, are you still a patient of that dentist?

convert

I've been given antibiotics for every abscess I've had on a tooth, so I thought it was the norm. Didn't realise it was only given for bad infections. That's made me feel a whole lot worse!!

Regarding the root canal, don't worry about it. I've had 2 done (and both teeth had an abscess) and didn't have any pain at all (and I've got really sensitive teeth - I used to have to stop my last dentist and ask him to give me more anaesthetic because of the pain!). Seriously, it's nothing to worry about. And if you do start to feel a twinge, tell your dentist it hurts (most will tell you to raise your hand if you feel any pain) and they'll give you more anaesthetic. It may also be a good idea to bring some antibiotics with you which you can take after the procedure so they will have kicked in by the time the anaesthetic has worn off.

eth0_

res ipsa wrote: »

thats a shame etho,I would not do work on a tooth that I could not get numb.

Just out of interest, are you still a patient of that dentist?

No, this happened when I was a teenager. Actually, he never crowned the tooth (it was a lower molar) and a few years later it cracked all the way down to the root.

Just a bad dentist?

dentalnurse

eth0_ wrote: »

No, this happened when I was a teenager. Actually, he never crowned the tooth (it was a lower molar) and a few years later it cracked all the way down to the root.

Just a bad dentist?

After a tooth is root treated it becomes more brittle so this can happen - thats not the dentists fault... maybe he should have advised you to get it crowned. In saying that my boss would never treat a patient if he/she had any pain from what he was doing, he'd give more local, if that didnt work he'd dress it with cresophene and temporary filling material and go back to it the following week. I cant say hes a bad dentist, i wasnt there but maybe he felt he was getting nowhere with it and had to do it (make it hurt a little) im sure res ipsa knows what i mean (injecting the nerve with local) ????

res ipsa

eth0_ wrote: »

No, this happened when I was a teenager. Actually, he never crowned the tooth (it was a lower molar) and a few years later it cracked all the way down to the root.

Just a bad dentist?

Not for me to say, but I will say that every root treated premolar or molar needs protection from biting forces (usually a crown or onlay)http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11941351

and that if a dentist doesnt stop working on a tooth when a patient is in distress or pain they are in the wrong profession.

nipps

Gone Drinking wrote: »

(btw, this is my first root canal, and i'm ****ting la bricks, my mates mother said its worse than giving birth, hurah)

here, i'm 17 and i got one 2 months ago, its not too bad but it costs a s**t load!

Gone Drinking

Cheers for the helpfull replies. I'm due to have it done on thursday afternoon. The swelling has gone down, so there's no pain there anymore, which is good.

Its one of my front teeth, a tooth that has alot of white filling already. She said i'll need to have it crowned within a year, 900 for that though

€300 seems reasonable for the root canal and filling though, compared to some of the stuff i've heard anyway!

Gone Drinking

Hey folks, just thought id give a bit of an update..

75% done apparently, she put in a temporary filling to make sure there's no pain or problems during the week, so she's filling it permanently on thursday.

Wasn't bad at all, actually probably one of the easier dentist trips ive ever made! No pain, even a few hours later, it was only a bit tender.

She's a hot dentist aswell, which makes it even better!