Just when I thought I had streamlined the whole thyroid sonogram situation, and eliminated a redundant or additional doctor by way of consolidating my neuro and optic-neuro into one specialist, Saturday I was informed I needed a root canal.
I had a 37 year old filling that a small part broke off, and despite complaining about it to my dentist, he did nothing about it, as he couldn't find the break, and didn't do any further/comprehensive imaging to see what was going on. So I've gone let's say, 6-12 additional months with this intermittent twinge when I'd bite down to chew a steak or the twinge would hit if I ate/drank something too hot (obviously an indicator something was rotten in Denmark!).
Amalgam fillings typically last about twenty years, so considering I had this one for nearly 37 years, it didn't owe me anything. I got more than enough mileage out of it!
Saturday I followed up with my husband's dentist as mine pretty much has one foot out the door to retirement, and both dentists are in the same practice, so it's not like I had to seek out an entirely new office and become an established patient, so score one for convenience.
Anyway, I'm in the office on Saturday for what I thought would be an exam and evaluation, and whatever work would be started in a subsequent office visit. But the dentist said he had an hour until his next patient and if I wanted to do so, he could drill/grind out the old filling and take an assessment--but warned me that he wouldn't really know what we're dealing with. And of course, it was a gamble on my part. But he managed to numb me enough to work on the tooth, and I need a root canal.
Meanwhile, my husband is in the other cubicle getting a dental cleaning, and the dentist was called in to do a quick exam on him. And no great surprise, he needs a root canal as well. He's been struggling since roughly December with some pain/discomfort, which we thought was just a sinus infection. We traveled to India, and he saw a doctor there, who prescribed antibiotics, and that helped a bit. And weeks after returning, the pain returned, and our GP couldn't figure it out, and referred us out to an ENT, who scoped him and couldn't find anything. And here it is about two months after returning from India, and it turns out it wasn't a sinus infection at all. He's got an abscess in the tooth immediately adjacent to the one he had root canal in nearly two years ago (and that root canal went bad, and he ended up losing the tooth and now has an implant).
While I am upset about the prospect of having a root canal, as I am the one in our little family who has the good teeth, I am MORE upset about Maharajah's, as he's gone through one struggle or another with his teeth and gums.
He had his root canal two days ago, and the pain seems to be amping up as of yesterday, and this morning there's a bit of swelling in his cheek in the area of the tooth that was worked on. So, a call was made this morning for possibly some pain meds and antibiotics for him--I'm pretty much surprised by the lack of post-root canal antibiotics, especially given he's got an obvious abscess, but what do I know?
Anyway, my root canal is scheduled for 4/22, and when it comes to my mouth, I need my hand held like a little kid. And I hope that when I finally do get the crown installed, that I will get as good of mileage out of it as I got out of the amalgam filling!
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