How painful is a root canal? - General Discussion Discussion

[–] MIchiganJFrogg (-35) 7 years ago

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[–] kspkap (13570) 7 years ago

@MFrogg

The same thing happened to me. No pain so I let it go. Not a good thing because eventually the tooth fell apart and as a result I had to have oral surgery. If I had taken heed I could have saved my tooth by having a root canal then a crown. Every extraction has caused more shifting of the remaining teeth. You would be wise to take care of that tooth.

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[–] MIchiganJFrogg (-35) 7 years ago

[deleted]

[–] kspkap (13570) 7 years ago

I have a back molar which is deteriorating and needs to be extracted. There isn’t enough tooth to do a root canal & crown as most of it is a filling. I could have it extracted and a bridge made like I did on the opposite side of my mouth. Trouble is there isn’t a back molar to anchor the bridge. That molar has been gone for years. His advice....remove and have a dental implant! That’s a no go as I’m not putting $4K for one tooth in my mouth at my age. Like yours it’s not hurting so I baby it and use Sensodyne for Tooth Repair hoping it will buy me more time. I also use the enamel building mouth rinse. I want to avoid the removal due to shifting of the remaining teeth and cheek bites. Having several missing back molars can result in painful cheek bites....the reason for me getting a bridge.

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[–] CKid (3842) 7 years ago

Compared to kidney stones, root canal is not painful at all.
I've had two episodes of kidney stones and one root canal. I'll take a root canal any day of the week.

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[–] Catbookss (13664) 7 years ago

I've heard kidney stones give the worst possible pain. My father had them, and so does my closest friend. I believe them when they said it was the worst!

Hope you'll never have to deal with them again.

Worst pain I've experienced was when I fractured and dislocated my shoulder a few years ago. The pain was unbearable. Finally told the nurse "If you don't give me something for this pain, RIGHT NOW, I'M GOING ROGUE!" Thankfully she gave me morphine, I think. Or something that acted quickly and effectively.

I've had a root canal. It wasn't all that bad. Nothing like I was expecting, what with the expression "I'd rather have a root canal" being so common.

As long as they numb you up properly beforehand, and give you a good pain reliever for afterwards, eh, not that bad.

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[–] missnat (1179) 7 years ago

I had a root canal in one of my front teeth,the dentist at first wanted to remove the tooth I said hell no!

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[–] kspkap (13570) 7 years ago

After that comes the costly crown! It doesn’t hurt if you’ve had enough of the anesthetic (Lidocaine). A good dentist will apply a numbing gel to ease the pain of the injection. My regular dentist has all of the most modern expensive equipment such as a vibrating syringe. So much less painful than the old fashioned needle syringe. Since my nerves are so close to the surface I require more of the anesthetic than the average person. At the first sign of pain I signal the endodontist (root canal)to inject more and he complies. I’m usually in the chair for around four hours due to the wait time for each of the injected anesthetic to take effect.

I also have more roots than the average bear so it’s quite an ordeal to have a tooth extracted. The last one I had extracted took all of the dentist’s strength (“no, no you aren’t yanking me out!) to dislodge it. I was gripping the chair arms in order to stay seated! When it finally let go it got it’s revenge and smacked him right in the kisser and landed in the hall! What a hoot!

When I was in my teens I had to have one extracted. It just wouldn’t budge so the guy straddled me to get a good grip and eventually it gave up the ghost. Now that I think about it, I’m wondering if it was really necessary to *straddle* me.🤔

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[–] [deleted] 7 years ago

Not painful at all.

Just a pain in the ass holding your mouth open for so long.

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[–] Eric56 (4580) 7 years ago

Can you get away without a crown after a root canal?

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[–] Catbookss (13664) 7 years ago

No. Trust me, I tried that, because I didn't know the procedure required two separate things, and the root canal by itself was very expensive. Later I lost the tooth as a result :(

You can get away with it for a while, but don't wait too long to get the crown.

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[–] slimone (7996) 7 years ago

I was supposed to have a root canal a few years ago on one of my molars. When I learned the price I told the dentist to pull the damn tooth.

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[–] Padeen (6459) 7 years ago

Get a second opinion. Dentists can be shady.

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