Yesterday was the day I was booked in to start my root canal. I got to the dentist, they did an x-ray and had a poke around and realised that they needed a specific solvent to make it easier for the cap to come off. So I was rescheduled to come in today.
So, today I work up the courage again, and head in for my 10.30am appointment. I was put straight in, x-rayed again and then numbed up with that damn long needle. This needle felt HUGE and I swear it took about 2 minutes from first jab until she took it back out again. I hate that feeling of having the needle being swivelled around, as the dentist pushed it deeper, avoiding bone on the way. Yuck. She was lovely though, talking to me the whole time, reminding me to breathe and relax - it was strangely soothing!
It numbed up after a few more minutes and then the drilling started. I was coping fine, the anaesthetic has worked wonderfully and I wasn't feeling a thing. I was even starting to completely relax and just layed back, enjoying the rest time. After about 20 minutes of drilling, picking and poking, the dentist told me that she has gotten to a bit in the tooth that she was unsure of, so she wanted to do another x-ray. I had a root canal on this tooth when I was about 10, and the dentist was hoping that the "canal" they had created then, would be all the way to the cavity entrance point. However, it wasn't, it was only half way through the tooth and the rest of the way to the canal was full of something not too much different for cement. That meant that she had to navigate through that rather blindly, in the hope that she'd hit a space which would indicate that she was at the beginning of the canal. It's normally not that hard, because on an original root canal, the nerve is there to show the way - but as I'd had the nerve out there was nothing. She x-rayed again and could see that she was on the way, but was worried about continuing to drill and accidental heading in the wrong direction. She got her Superior in to have a go, and after drilling for a bit, she wasn't confident in going any further either. The problem is if the root canal gets stuffed up and isn't successful, it will mean that I'll need a post and screw-on fake tooth, which is not covered by the public dentist and it is very, very expensive. Like in the vicinity of $5000. So they are trying very hard to save my tooth.
Anyway, after 3 of the dentists chatted, they decided that the best thing to do would be close up the tooth and have me come back to see the head dentist, who is apparently fantastic at root canal work. Having it open for too much longer was exposing it to too much bacteria, which was too risky. So after getting the horrific needle and all the drilling (2 hours all up!) I was patched back up and don't go back until next Friday. The anaesthetic was starting to wear off as she was putting in the filling, which she explained was because of the infection.
On a positive note, if the root canal is successful, I may be getting a new false front on my tooth too! One of the 5th year students needs to do do some crowns in her last year, and I'm apparently a perfect candidate! I'll just have to pay the lab cost of about $300, but way better than a few thousand! Finally I'll have a normal looking tooth, not a discoloured ragged looking one - like it is now! It's currently got a very bad veneer on it, which doesn't go right to the top, so you can see part of the black tooth underneath. I've become quite attached to my dodgy, discoloured tooth though, but I'm sure I'll get over that once I'm all crowned up.
I've got orientation for Uni tomorrow. I was going to spend this week getting all the study organised and all the information about each subject printed off - but so many other things seemed to have come up. I'll find out more tomorrow about what I need to do before next week, then it'll be a busy weekend getting organised and no doubt nervous....
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