Dental Doldrums

[kevin_standlee]

Yesterday's dentist appointment was not bad by itself. (The hygienist complemented me about how good a job I'm doing on keeping my teeth cleaned.) However the X-rays combined with how I still have temperature sensitivity on the lower right tooth that they re-capped last year, led the dentist to refer me to an endodontist for further evaluation. There is a dark spot under the root that may be an infection. If so, I'll need a root canal.

This afternoon, after returning from an unrelated medical appointment, I got a call from the endodontist's office. Astonishingly, they can see me on Thursday afternoon. They'll scan the tooth with their equipment, and if I need the root canal, they can do it that afternoon. They say that they can do the procedure in less than an hour, which would be amazing if it works. I wasn't keeping track, but the last root canal I had, years ago, seemed to take hours, and it's the keeping your mouth cranked open for such a long time that makes the procedure such a pain, literally.

Comments

[wild_patience]

Ugh, root canals. Mine have always been time-consuming and expensive, being two appointments for the root canal itself then another two appointments for the crown on top.

[kevin_standlee]

Yep. I hope that by combining steps, we'll only have two in total: one for the evaluation and procedure, and the second for the crown.

I need to remember to ask for the crown they're removing. When I had the previous two crown replacements, I forgot to ask for the crown, and as the crowns are gold, I lost about $50 worth of scrap gold value because of it.

[jcfiala]

Throughout my long life of crappy teeth, it has been neat seeing how technology advancing has lead to faster and better care.