Monday, October 1, 2007

A root canal is nowhere near a filling!

Ok, when you are going in expecting just a filling and leave with a root canal...your day isn't that wonderful! BLEH!

I went in today expecting to get one or two teeth filled. I had a lost filling and a broken tooth but thought they were just filling worthy and even the person who did the initial exam said fillings. Well, that is the last time I listen to anybody but the person who will actually be working on my teeth!

I go in and am told that BOTH TEETH need root canals. OH FUN! I only got one done today. I go back for the other one at the end of the month. I have to wait on the crown portions because of the expense but at least the pain of the nerve will end.

Ok...you can hate me now...it wasn't that bad. I've heard horror stories of people jumping out of the chair. I was numbed up and it began. The dentist was the most soft spoken and calm man I have ever been around. Part way through I felt a little twinge and he said I would need another shot in the actual nerve. I was waiting to be hanging from the ceiling by my finger nails during this.

He injected the nerve and counted to 5 (expecting me to cling to the chair like a baby monkey hanging for dear life as it's mom swung through the jungle). I just sat there like nothing was happening. The dentist looked at me in shock. He asked if I had felt it. I said yes but it wasn't more then a tiny pinch that was gone in less then a second. He said that is the part everyone dreads and why they put off getting a root canal for long periods of time.

Either I have the highest pain tolerance on the planet or other people are just way too sensitive! I don't get it. I really didn't find it to be that big of a deal. Is root canal pain just over rated for extra sympathy?

So, now I sit here drooling on myself like an infant and hungry as all get out. I don't dare eat because none of it would stay in my mouth anyways right now. My lip feels about the size of Daffy Duck's beak! My tongue feels like someone shoved an over inflated hot dog in my mouth. Such a lovely picture I am painting for you, isn't it?

So go on and eat your lovely dinners and think of me with a mouth so numb that I could get 1000 piercings in it and not feel even one (not that I would but you get the picture) and talking out of the side of my mouth. WOOHOO! >INSERT HUGE EYE ROLL HERE<