It’s been nine months since I’ve been to this blog–and what LONG nine months they have been! It all started with a root canal that I had in September of 2018…the one that caused me to have to cancel our trip to Key West.
Here’s what happened:
It had been a whole month after the initial root canal, but the tooth still wasn’t feeling right. It was time to have a temporary crown put on, but I was still having issues. I was told by my dentist to call the endodontist’s office for an appointment, which I did.
All of this happened to take place about the time hurricane Michael decided to come roaring through the south! Of course, I couldn’t get an appointment for several days, and when I did, the endodontist couldn’t see anything wrong. However, after giving me a round of antibiotics and steroids, to try to make the tooth feel better, the endodontist decided to repeat the root canal procedure a few days later. There was still no improvement in the way the tooth felt.
Just before Thanksgiving, and after the repeat root canal, I was given one more round round of antibiotics and steroids, but I continued to have tooth pain! I went back to my dentist for advice. He wasn’t sure what was going on with the root canal tooth, but seemed to think the neighboring wisdom tooth might be causing problems. He referred me to an oral surgeon.
Two weeks before Christmas I had the wisdom tooth surgically extracted by the oral surgeon. I was asleep and didn’t know anything about it, thank goodness. Everything went great until I contracted “dry socket” about two days later. This happens when a clot doesn’t properly form in the empty socket, and it’s VERY painful! I’ve never experienced pain like that before, and it lasted for well over two weeks. I went back and forth to the oral surgeon’s office [to have the socket “packed”] every day or so, in an effort to alleviate the pain. This is how I spent the two weeks leading up to last Christmas! I also took A LOT of pain medication. I lost seven pounds from not being able to eat, and did not enjoy the holidays.
Eventually, the pain of dry socket went away, but the root canal tooth continued to be sore and achy most of the time. My dentist kept urging me to “give it more time”. February came, then March and April. In May, when I had my teeth cleaned, the dentist announced he was going to crown the tooth in a month, even though it was still sore.
After I had my teeth cleaned, the root canal tooth began bothering me more than usual. I prayed and prayed about what to do. A week before I was due to get the temporary crown, I began to experience even more pain with it. I finally asked the dentist to just “pull it out”. He was very hesitant, and told me he “really hated to do this”, but, in the end, he did.
Unfortunately, I was not asleep when the dentist removed that tooth, and the extraction was AWFUL. Because the tooth had become brittle, it broke in half, and each one of its roots had to be surgically removed. The procedure was very painful, even though my mouth was numb! I left the dentist’s office in a lot of pain, that just got worse when I contracted “dry socket” for the second time!
It’s been six weeks since that last extraction and I’m still experiencing mouth pain. I wonder if there’s any end in sight? Now I have to wear a mouth guard at night because I’ve started back grinding my teeth. One tooth or another always seems to hurt, but x-rays don’t show anything wrong.
The extraction sight was big and it’s taking a while for it to heal. I have the distinction of being the “slowest healer” my dentist has ever seen. I also have the distinction of falling into the 1% of patients who experience a “failed root canal”. Lucky me.
Reflections...by Kathy 