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Rooted

My root canal this morning went pretty well. If you want the enthralling details, I present to you a run-down of what they did, along with relative pain rankings, “N” being no pain, and a scale of “!” ( for a bit of wincing pain ) to “!!!!!” ( for excruciating, unbearable pain).

1. Two shots of novocaine to my gums. !
2. Rubber dam put around the molar. N
3. Drilling of the tooth to remove temporary filling and gain access to pulp. !!
4. Another shot of novocaine to my palate, since the previous step caused a bit more pain. !
5. Scraping and filing of the root canals with dental files to remove the pulp (this scraping and filing is the actual ‘meat’ of the root canal treatment, as it were). N
6. X-Rays to determine the extent to which the canals need to be cleaned (I have very long roots, according to all of the dentists I’ve had). N
7. More scraping of the root canals. N
8. More X-Rays. N
9. More scraping. N
10. One last X-Ray. N
11. A bit more scraping. N
12. Root canals filled with inert, rubber-like material. N
13. Root access hole filled with temporary cement. N

So all in all, it really wasn’t too awful. The worst part, frankly, is sitting prone in a chair for an hour and a half, with one side of your jaw cranked wide open. It was quite a relief to be able to close my mouth after the appointment was over. The dentist gave me a prescription for ammoxicilin to combat any leftover bacteria from the root canal, and for vicodin in case the pain is unbearable. At this point, however, I’ve taken only a single Advil at 10:30 in the morning, and as of right now I don’t feel any pain at all. I suppose that makes sense, seeing as how they removed the nerves from my tooth. I doubt that I’ll need the vicodin, but it’s there just in case.

I have an appointment on Tuesday for another (small) cavity to be filled, and they’re going to do the crown and the post for my root canal in the same appointment. Finally, I will have one last appointment in 2-3 weeks to put the final cementing on my crown. Then all of that trial will be over, and hopefully I won’t ever have to go through this again. sigh