11-24-2016, 12:21 PM
Well, it turns out I was greatly naive about this whole root canal thing. I went in yesterday for a follow-up, which I thought would be the crown. Nope. This was the real root canal. On that first occasion she did drill out the nerve passages down to the infection in the jaw bone, but couldn't proceed until the infection was gone. So she temp-filled the passages and gave me a prescription for antibiotics.
So this time she x-rayed to confirm the infection looked gone, then drilled out the temp-fill, and brought out a complex set of tiny picks of every size and bend. The nerve passages are long and can be weirdly curved. One of mine was.
So I sat in gaping wonderment for an hour and a half as she picked away, cleaning out the nerve passages. There was a setback when one pick broke off. She couldn't retrieve the tip. So she did another x-ray and said it would be fine to leave it in there, because it was all the way at the bottom.
She filled the nerve passages with something permanent and the top of the tooth for a proper bite. But there was still the cavity in the side of the tooth that had caused all of this. It went below the gum-line, which required her to cut away part of the gum. She drilled and drilled, surprised at how big the cavity was, nearly half the tooth. Then she filled it in.
Sounds like I should have just had her pull it. Still, keeping the original tooth is a better guarantee of a proper matching bite.
The molar still needs to be capped, but not until next March, to ascertain there's no lingering infection or other problems. In the meantime, I have to be careful in my eating, because it's fragile. Wow. Three months to make a mistake.
As I was paying at the front desk, the dentist called out, "Hey, Cranefly. You want to see that pick?" So I ventured into her office, and she had the x-ray up on her screen. The nerve passages were very clear, one of them a big looping curve; and at the bottom of the curve, offset and oddly angled, was the tip of the pick. It looked to be in a safe place. But I did have one question.
"Why did you call me Cranefly?"
She laughed and slapped at my shoulder. "Oh, everyone knows about that."
So this time she x-rayed to confirm the infection looked gone, then drilled out the temp-fill, and brought out a complex set of tiny picks of every size and bend. The nerve passages are long and can be weirdly curved. One of mine was.
So I sat in gaping wonderment for an hour and a half as she picked away, cleaning out the nerve passages. There was a setback when one pick broke off. She couldn't retrieve the tip. So she did another x-ray and said it would be fine to leave it in there, because it was all the way at the bottom.
She filled the nerve passages with something permanent and the top of the tooth for a proper bite. But there was still the cavity in the side of the tooth that had caused all of this. It went below the gum-line, which required her to cut away part of the gum. She drilled and drilled, surprised at how big the cavity was, nearly half the tooth. Then she filled it in.
Sounds like I should have just had her pull it. Still, keeping the original tooth is a better guarantee of a proper matching bite.
The molar still needs to be capped, but not until next March, to ascertain there's no lingering infection or other problems. In the meantime, I have to be careful in my eating, because it's fragile. Wow. Three months to make a mistake.
As I was paying at the front desk, the dentist called out, "Hey, Cranefly. You want to see that pick?" So I ventured into her office, and she had the x-ray up on her screen. The nerve passages were very clear, one of them a big looping curve; and at the bottom of the curve, offset and oddly angled, was the tip of the pick. It looked to be in a safe place. But I did have one question.
"Why did you call me Cranefly?"
She laughed and slapped at my shoulder. "Oh, everyone knows about that."