I'm scurred

[yuyu!]

I-I might be getting another root canal tomorrow. Or two. My last root canal was last year, when one of my teeth became infected. It was a much-worse-than-usual experience that put me on heavy pain meds for about a week afterwards. This time, I'm going back on my own to have two other teeth finally fixed, years after they were damaged in the great soda and starbucks tooth purging of 2009 (I was 17 and had my first job ). My focus is on getting cosmetic work done and removing the cavities before they get worse (and painful), but they might already be deep enough to require a root canal. If I'm lucky, they'll just have to drill in and give me some crowns, but my dentist told me to prepare for the worst. If they get close to the root, it could cause problems in the future and lead to an increased risk of infection, so a root canal would prevent future worse root canals (like my first one). Yup.


Wish me luck. ;~;

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Goodbye yuyu.

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Oops.
I mean, good luck... everything is going to be fine.
You're going to be fine.
Everything is good.

[yuyu!]

I'm going to die

aren't I?

[Jules]

Good luck, missy

[yuyu!]

Thank you! ;_;

It's good that I rushed this, because otherwise I'd never want to get it done. No better time than before I start up full-time at a University next month, since I won't really have much time for it then. But once that guy said "we can see you at 9am tomorrow", the reality hit me: the dentist's office is a scary place.... ;~;

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I've never had a root thing, I've only had teeth pulled.
How bad are those root things?

[AbsoluteIce]

Good luck, yuyu.
I'm scared of the dentist too, and i've put off my appointment multiple times too 

[bluntsword]

Praying yuyu. You got this.

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I will also pray to Satan.
Hail Satan.

[yuyu!]

I've never had a root thing, I've only had teeth pulled.
How bad are those root things?

Root canals are supposedly not as bad as people say, but most people consider them to be the last resort of dental work. I think a root canal is the worst thing that can be done to an individual tooth.

The reason why it sucks so badly is the procedure. From what I know, they drill a small hole into your tooth, stick a small tube in it, suck out the nerve, clean the empty space, then fill it with a kind of cement. There's a lot of scraping, cleaning, suction, and drilling. It's extremely uncomfortable, especially because it can take some time. During some parts, you might experience sharp pain from the nerve exposure or scraping when they clean out the nerve in your root. The whole time you're drooling all over yourself, with a suction tube in your mouth to remove the drool and small shards of tooth that were drilled, all the while smelling and tasting the smoke from the drill and rubber from the gloves and tubes. It really does suck, but it's more uncomfortable than painful. Once you survive it, you feel pretty darn brave. B) ...Kind of.

And there's more, since I have to have crowns placed over that. But, uh, I think that's enough detail. ._.

I think I had a rare awful experience last time because it was an infection. Once they put in the cement, the pain goes away (probably because it protects the inside of the tooth from being exposed to air and temperatures). They weren't allowed to put cement in there for a week or so, because I had to be on antibiotics (the one kind I haven't had an allergic reaction to yet). They had to go back and make sure the infection was 100% gone before closing it up.

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That sounds a lot like having a tooth pulled. :o
Hail Satan.

[yuyu!]

That sounds a lot like having a tooth pulled. :o

It's very different, and even more time-consuming. ;_; Because they're keeping your tooth intact and have to actively drill in, remove the nerve, clean it, then close it. With a tooth being pulled, they just remove it, clean, and then done (I think?).

[yuyu!]

Oh, when having a tooth pulled, they also might sometimes have to scrape and clean into the socket to remove any left over shards. With the root canal, they scrape around inside your hollow tooth. I had one pulled when I was a kiddo and it was a fairly quick and painless process. Root canal was much worse. Both sucked.


seeing the dentist sucks

[Roph]

Y'all need to take better care of your teeth.

I still have my baby teeth at age 27 (long story), no fillings, pullings, canals or whatever

[bluntsword]

I will also pray to Satan.
Hail Satan.

Sigh.

Do you tell that story on first dates Roph?

[Acolyte]

I still have my baby teeth at age 27

wut

[yuyu!]

Y'all need to take better care of your teeth.

Yes, there are bad habits that can lead to needing dental procedures (such as my sugar addiction when I was 17), but a lot of other factors have to do with it as well. Some people get cavities more easily than others - one of my older sisters drinks nothing but soda, eats tons of sugary treats, and never gets cavities. I've always been good about my brushing, flossing, and mouth washing, but I still got cavities. It took a 6-month phase of me acting like her to be royally screwed, and she's still like that (with her chompers going strong). On that same note, her habits have screwed her over in other ways. Her teeth bleed really easily and mine never do (despite having a very powerful toothbrush and being an aggressive flosser). Everyone is different. Obviously, I have better eating habits now that I'm not a teenager that needed caffeine galore to make it through my first job, but I've never not taken care of my teeth and am pretty crazy about hygiene. ;o

Note: Now that I'm working my most stressful job ever (working with kids), I find that water is a better source of energy anyways.

I still have my baby teeth at age 27 (long story), no fillings, pullings, canals or whatever

My oldest sister has her baby teeth at age 30, because they never fell out. :b Erm, the other older sister. Not the one I was just talking about. .__.

[yuyu!]

but tbh I'd rather have to deal with the upkeep of adult teeth than be stuck with baby teeth. In my sister's case, her teeth are really gappy .____.

[Acolyte]

Teeth are fucking weird man

[Jules]

TIL that it is possible to keep your baby teeth. That is just insane. .-.

[Tetsune]

I was SUPPOSED to get a root canal, but they decided to do a bridge instead on me. Meaning pull the tooth, and put a cap on the two teeth it was between with a replacement tooth. Which meant shaving the other teeth down for the bridge.
Then we couldn't pay for it and I'm stuck with 2 shaved teeth and a missing tooth. It kind of sucks.

Now, WISDOM teeth...

[Roph]

TIL that it is possible to keep your baby teeth. That is just insane. .-.

Like sophist's pic shows, my teeth were aligned wrong, odd angles, malformed, I forget exactly what, but something was up with the adult ones. I was in and out of specialist dentists when I was little. In the end they decided they weren't happy with how things were going so they put me in for surgery to have them removed.

[Ryosis]

Now, WISDOM teeth...

Oh lord. I can't rightly say I know what it's like to have your wisdom teeth extracted, even though I had all four taken out at once. I spent weeks stoned out of my mind on Lortabs because 17-year-old me thought he was invincible and used a straw two days after the procedure.

I've never had a root canal, but I can't imagine it being any worse than dry socket.

[yuyu!]

I'M ALIVE!

I'm also lucky! My dentist didn't get close to the root and I didn't need a root canal at all. ;___; She was pretty sure I would. I was pretty sure I would. This tooth is still pretty susceptible to getting one in the future, but I'm still happy that it didn't need one now!

But I did get really messed up on loopy gas. .__. She didn't charge much for it and I felt nervous as hell, so my mom gave me the OK to have them use it on me. I didn't know what I was getting into. Everything started slowing down and it was kind of weird and funny, but then suddenly my vision starts getting bright. I'm surrounded by light and the faint sounds of the dentist at the distance. Everything slowed down and I felt like my body was grasping on to its last remnants of comprehension, since I got to a point where I could barely even hear my dentist's voice anymore. I started panicking because I thought I was going to pass out and die or something. I saw the light, man. So, I made them reduce the gas and was happy loopy for most of the procedure. My dentist and her assistance got a kick out of the way I freaked out about the "nose thing messing with me".

At least I was in my happy place for most of the procedure.

10/10 would get loopy at the dentist's office again