Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: I can't come to the phone; I'm having ROOT CANAL!

This is topic I can't come to the phone; I'm having ROOT CANAL! in forum Film-Yak at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Manny Knowles (Member # 1171) on 07-29-2003, 03:53 PM:

Okay now I really, really, REALLY "get" that scene in "Marathon Man."

I would type more but my jaws are aching.

Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 07-29-2003, 04:14 PM:

[Eek!]

Having grown up in the days before flouride in toothpaste and flouridated drinking water, I've had my share of fillings and root canals. [Frown]

Hope you feel better soon. [thumbsup]

Posted by Bob Maar (Member # 763) on 07-29-2003, 04:41 PM:

Like John I was a pre flouride candidate with more cavities than teeth. I hated the dentist with a passion. It's been years, since I have felt that pain [Mad]

but your post has brought those awful memories flooding back.My mouth is a black sea of Pain.

Posted by David Stambaugh (Member # 1102) on 07-29-2003, 04:52 PM:

Here in loony Eugene, we don't have flouride in the water because it's POISON!!! You can always spot the Eugene natives because they're the ones with black rotten teeth. [Roll Eyes]

Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 07-29-2003, 10:27 PM:

Manny,

I once "broke up" my dentist with a well-placed Marathon Man reference.

The hygenist had just finished my cleaning and the dentist came into the room. He started pulling on his gloves with that characteristic "Snap!" as he let go of the cuff.

"Is it SAFE!?", I quipped with a fake German accent.
He was practically rolling on the floor! The funniest part was that the hugenist had NO CLUE what the joke was. The dentist had to explain the movie to her. She still didn't get it!

As far as the root canal goes, the first part is the worst. It's all down hill from here. I just had one a few months ago. The hardest part was the needle. He applied a "nerve block" instead of the standard injection. The difference is that a nerve block is injected into a main nerve cluster whereas the standard injection is done on/near the site of the surgery. Once the anesthetic took effect I felt nothing on the whole side of the jaw. It was a little more uncomfortable going in but that lasted only 30 seconds.

If you had a tradidional root canal, the dentist will have you come back for another sitting. The first time is the general "cleanout" of the damaged root and pulp. He puts a temporary filing in place while the tooth heals. The next time you go back he will fill the tooth with gutta percha and fill it again. At this point the root canal is done. If you elect to have a permanent crown put on, that will take more trips to the dentist. It's a good idea to have the crown put on because it's more permanent it's more expensive. You can wait to have the crown put on if you want.

Here's the freaky part. The second sitting is often done without any anasthetic at all! Think for a second. On your last visit, the dentist totally removed the nerves from the tooth. It can't feel anything anymore! Unless the procedure is extensive, you'll be in and out in just 30 minutes!

Some dentists are performing root canal to crown surgeries all in one sitting nowadays. Some say it's better but most dentists I have talked to still believe in doing it in stages. They say this allows them to monitor the tooth's progress as it heals and account for any problems as they arise.

If your dentist did the all in one, forget all about this crap. Just take your codine pills and go to sleep! [Wink]

I guarantee you'll feel 100% better in the morning. In a few days, you'll never know it happened.

If you have to go back for another visit, be sure to say, "Is it SAFE!?" [Big Grin]

Posted by William Hooper (Member # 71) on 07-30-2003, 01:12 AM:

When you go back, take your video recorder & a tripod. Tell the dentist you want to videotape it to send to your family members at Christmas. Bring a Santa hat & ask the dentist to wear it while he works.

Posted by Manny Knowles (Member # 1171) on 07-30-2003, 01:47 AM:

Thanks, guys. Misery always loves company!

Well I can finally bring myself to add more details to this afternoon's drama.

This started late last week when I noticed "sensitivity" to hot & cold food or drink. Actually all the teeth seemed to get a bit of the pain but it was concentrated around one of the molars. I went to see my dentist -- a family friend -- on Saturday morning.

An X-Ray revealed that there was decay below a filling in the molar from whence the pain originated; evidently the filling shrank and allowed bacteria to get in there! My dentist warned me that the decay was in a tricky spot and a root canal might be necessary.

Two injections later and he was drilling. And then -- unbelievable, sharp pain. He broke the news to me and my heart sank. I thought it a bit odd that I was still feeling pain after two injections. He said I had a "hot tooth" and then gave me another injection before drilling again.

More pain.

He had to stop at that point. The plan was to put in a medicated filling to calm the tooth down and we'd try again in one month.

Saturday afternoon, as the anaesthetic wore off, I felt a dull, throbbing pain.

The weekend was spent watching the clock. Every four hours, another dose of Tylenol.

Monday morning and all afternoon -- I found myself trapped in a managers' meeting at the theatre. I had been asked to attend to listen in and give input but instead I sat distracted by the pain which had not gone away. Four hours later, I realized that I had left my bottle of Tylenol at home. I was still in the meeting. The managers from different theatre locations were comparing costs of ketchup and relish from their various suppliers.

Flavacol salt costs $30.80 for a dozen boxes. My brother, one of the managers, insisted on including the 80 cents when dividing it out to calculate the "per ounce" cost in order to compare it to the cost of buying Savorol. I had to get out of there.

I excused myself and drove back to the dentist. I demanded drugs and they gave me Arcoxia and marked me down for an appointment the next day...which was today (Tuesday).

Arcoxia performed as advertised. Within twenty minutes the throbbing was gone. I decided to rest up for the big day ahead of me.

Tuesday afternoon I was back in the chair. I had taken another Arcoxia and hoped that it would "make nice" with whatever anaesthetic the dentist would be using. Who knows? Maybe it did. They were able to get a lot further than on Saturday.

Then he hit that nerve!

Not entirely certain just where I was feeling the pain, the dentist went scraping about with his little hook-thing. I was sure to let him know when he hit the spot.

Out came a SPECIAL NEEDLE. This one went DIRECTLY TO THE NERVE. Ye-ouch! That is some sharp nasty pain. But then things were fine.

Until...lather, rinse, repeat.

Three times. Holy shit!

I was ready to just lose the tooth. I had had enough but he swore were more than halfway there so I agreed to try again.

Next door, they were waking up a patient. I remember wondering what the hell she was in for. I heard them asking if she was having any trouble seeing. My dentist decided to ask me questions about cooking and I tried my best to play along and provide answers. Bear in mind that the entire right side of my mouth is numb plus I've got a dental dam stretched across my mouth. And, yet...somehow he understood everything I was saying. It reminded me of the drive-thru scene in "Wayne's World."

All these thoughts as the drilling continued in my tooth. I noticed something. I was feeling no pain. I breathed a deep sigh of relief and tried to go on with the distracting thoughts. Across town, my mother was at her dentist's office getting an implant. I had an absurd thought about there being some mixup and her coming home with fake breasts. I might have laughed but I can't be sure.

Things were going well and then out came a funny-looking attachment for the drill. A scary-looking attachment. It looked like a miniature bottle brush. A teeny-tiny rat-tail file. I knew what that was for just by looking. It was to go down into the root canals and pulverize the nerve tissue. If there was going to be pain, it was going to be huge.

I won't lie: I started crying.

My life flashed before my eyes -- no shit -- and I started having angry thoughts at my parents for not raising me with good dental hygiene habits. Mercifully, he tested the little file by inserting it manually into the canals.

More drilling. Lots of anxiety. But no more pain.

I have to go back in a week's time to have the temporary filling replaced. Then there will be another visit to get a crown. My dentist prescribed some Valium for me to take a half-hour before the next appointment.

The ordeal did not end there...I waited, quite nervously, for all that anaesthesia to wear off...wondering how much pain I would be in.

It's been well over eight hours since my mouth got back to normal. So far, so good.

Until next week...

Posted by Christopher Duvall (Member # 284) on 07-30-2003, 02:58 AM:

My wife feels for you. She has teeth like sandstone. Numerous root canals and crowns. I, on the other hand, cannot share your experience. I have never had a cavity just like my grandfather. We have super hard enamel. However, that comes at price for me...at least you get to have a beer. [beer]

I can't... [Frown]

I have some sort of hyper sensitivity...like an alergy. Sucks for me.

Posted by Christopher Seo (Member # 7) on 07-30-2003, 03:37 AM:

Manny,

That is quite a gut wrenching description. I swear I'll brush three or four times a day from now on-- although I guess that can't prevent bacteria from getting underneath a filling (isn't there any way to detect this sort of stuff before it's too late?!). Just curious, was the filling in question silver, bonded (not too sure of the technical names) or what?

I just got my first crown but obviously that was like eating a bag of candy compared to your ordeal....

Posted by Michael Schaffer (Member # 1204) on 07-30-2003, 03:39 AM:

Christopher - you don`t miss very much, since here you can`t get the real thing anyway.

Posted by Christopher Seo (Member # 7) on 07-30-2003, 03:45 AM:

Eh? How's that?

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 07-30-2003, 03:55 AM:

I have an idea of what you went through Manny. I had to have my back 4 teeth removed many years ago because they were coming in sideways and underneath my back teeth. They were about to screw up a few years of orthodontics. The problem is they were all buried above the gum line and could only be seen via X-ray. The dentist had to literally cut and peel back the gums, then cut more, and more, and more until he could gain access to the teeth, then pull them out sideways. I don't exaggerate when I say that the doctor's entire head and chest was covered with blood that was flying out of my mouth. It was everywhere. All over me, the little tray holding his tools, even his two assistants had a fair amount. He shot me with the strongest drug he had 4 times, in the end giving me "more than you are legally allowed to have" just to get the job done. Believe me, it wasn't near enough. It was absolutely horrible. I've never had a root canal, but I feel your pain.

The only thing that was worse was when I had food poisioning from a theater who's sewer line cracked and contaminated the underground water lines. There is NOTHING worse than food poisioning! When suicide reasoning becomes a really good option, the pain is too much.

Posted by William T. Parr (Member # 677) on 07-30-2003, 07:44 AM:

Back when I had my Wisdom teeth removed I had one that was just as bad as Brad's. After the pain medication wore off that pot in my mouth throbbed forever. Uncomfortable and hard to sleep.

Posted by Bruce McGee (Member # 131) on 07-30-2003, 09:33 AM:

I've never had a root canal. However, I had all 4 wisdom teeth removed. Three of them were tangled up in the jaw bone. So, I was put to sleep to remove them. I remember when I woke up, I thought: Is it over? Then I tried to move my jaw. WHAM! Mega PAIN!!
On the drive home, we stopped by the drug store to fill my perscription. While my mom was in the store, I apparently woke up a little and locked all the doors on the car, then passed out again. She came out, saw what I had done, and discovered that she had left the keys in the car with me (The A/C was on--July.) I understand that it took 10 minutes of tapping on the windows to get me to come-to enough to push the 'unlock' button.

I was 16 at the time. 1972.

All of my wisdom teeth were below the gum line. In other words, none of them had pushed thru the gum surface.

Posted by Manny Knowles (Member # 1171) on 07-30-2003, 10:02 AM:

Okay as far as wisdom teeth I got lucky I guess. All four of them came in just fine.

+phew+

Maybe that's what the mysterious woman-next-door had gotten done. I really got the impression that they knocked her unconscious.

I didn't sleep much last night -- I literally had flashbacks of the pain of those injections into the canals.

And, then, my mind started playing tricks on me and I started feeling random little bursts of nerve pain in some of the other teeth. [Eek!]

...at least...I hope that was my mind playing tricks...

Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 07-30-2003, 12:08 PM:

When I got my tooth done, the dentist used what looked like a foot-long needle and he injected it down into the back of the mandibular joint. He hit me with about four shots of that thing. The first couple were shallow to numb the tissues around the "real" injections. The last couple were deep... right into the main nerve bundle that "services" that part of the jaw. He put a couple of shallow injections into the base of the affected tooth just for good measure. I tell you, he could have hit me in the face with a beseball bat and I wouldn't have felt it!

Yes, I did get a couple of twinges while he was doing the first "clean-out". (Removal of all the infected pulp tissue from the canals.)

We worked out a little system:
Hold up one finger -- "Hey, I felt that! Watch out!"
Hold up TWO fingers -- "I REALLY felt that! Back off!"
Hold up three fingers -- "Stop! I can't take it!"

There was only one time where I got to three fingers and had to stop for a minute. Honestly, I could have kept going but I was tired of hearing that grinding noise and I just wanted to rest.

Once he got the pulp chambers cleaned out I never felt a thing. The next visit he didn't even use anasthetic except for that topical junk that the cotton balls are saturated in.

Manny, the worst is over, I say. From here on, the rest should be smooth sailing!

Posted by Charles Everett (Member # 889) on 07-30-2003, 02:26 PM:

Yes, I can sympathise. I have had a root canal or two myself yet I am quite strong and can manage the pain. Plenty of Novocain did the job. Not to mention a good orthodontist who knows how to do root canals.

When my wisdom teeth got pulled I was given nitrous oxide through a mask. A race car driver I know said that when she's inside her car on the race track "it's another world, like taking gas at the dentist". I got through that experience by imagining I was her behind the wheel.

Posted by Don Bruechert (Member # 1538) on 08-01-2003, 09:15 AM:

I had the wisdon teeth thing done too - they were impacted. I think that is the worst thing dentally that I ever had done. I am a pain wuss though and I made them do it under general anesthesia, and it's a good thing, because my Mom said the dentist was kneeling on me and pounding with a chisel to get one of them out. They of course cracked my sinus bone - leading to a nasty sinus infection along with everything else, and I found out my inside nose holes are to small and they turned the back of my throat into hamburger trying to get the breathing cannula installed. All this was in either late 1981 or early 1982. They gave me Tylenol with codeine, which worked OK, except I found out that codeine tends to cause all the water to migrate from my large intestine, making it extremely difficult to... um, well... let's just say codeine is annoying.... Otherwise I religiously go to the dentist every 6 months, and I usually pretty much sleep in the chair the whole time. One good habit that I have to give full credit for to my Mother....