monkey nonsense

so i got my 3rd root canal yesterday, this time with my dentist in VA. i’ve, since i can remember, only had one dentist so i never really realized there are different ways to do stuff. (similar to how i never realized some doctors just prick your finger to get a blood sample. how does that even work!? i can only imagine it’d take forrrrrever to get enough blood for a sample! my doctor always used needles!)

so during my cleaning on wednesday, my new dentist noticed that couple of my fillings weren’t done properly. the hygienist even asked me whether i got my fillings many years ago (nope) or in another country (what is it with dentists who see my teeth?! first my old dentist asked me if i grew up outside the US where they don’t fluorinate the water? and now my new dentist thinks i went to another third-world country to get fillings!). apparently, they are done so poorly that my new dentist thinks it’s worth it to replace.

so it got me worried… have i been going to a shoddy dentist this whole time?! maybe this is why my teeth are screwed! boy am i glad talida recommend this good doctor! so i went in yesterday for my first root canal with this dentist. for my previous 2 root canals, my dentist referred me to this endodentist. though i now wonder whether my old dentist was good… i’m pretty sure this endodentist is good! i felt no pain during the procedure, he explained to me what was going on (even dangling my nerve in front of me to show me), and he was quick. like insanely quick! like i had just sat down and bam, my root canal was done! since he did my 2 root canals the same way, i kinda thought there was one standard way to do it.

but this time, the new dentist did things differently! first, i didn’t get stuck with one of those “dams” in my mouth. those things are really annoying and uncomfortable, but considering how quick my old endodentist was, it was really only in my mouth for like 15 minutes. new dentist used this craaaaaaazy powerful sucker (the thing nearly sucked my lips up!) to keep my mouth clean. but then my mouth was dry the whole time and i wonder how effective it was in keeping my tooth clean.

my old endodentist “hand” root canal-ed my tooth. new dentist told me he would be using a computer to help with the process. the whole time, i could hear these beeping sounds while the dentist was working. it almost sounded like a game. there would be one sound and then it would change to another sound and my dentist would react differently. kind of amusing… but a few times, i saw him looking at a screen instead of my tooth. kind of worried me.

after finishing cleaning the tooth, my endodentist would usually send me home with the tooth still open (at least the 2nd root canal was like this. i remember he told me it was to drain and make sure everything was gone from the area. i remember having to go multiple times to make sure there was no more problems and having to wait another week before getting my crown ’cause there was still problems.) this time, the dentist already closed up the hole and put a filling on it! i guess it doesn’t need to be drained? i kinda like it this way because i feel a bit more comfortable not having a hole in my tooth

then there was the whole time thing. in the end, my dentist took nearly a hour and a half to finish the root canal!

finally, my first 2 root canals didn’t require any medicine at all. this time, the dentist prescribed vicodin and amoxicillin. i think perhaps this time’s root canal was worse since i could feel pain in my tooth and because i ended up chipping it since it was so weakened. but yea… never had to take any medicine! not a fan of eating medicine. so far, i haven’t had to take the vicodin, but the doctor said to take the amoxicillin until it was all gone. hrm…

i hope my newest root canal will be ok…

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 28th, 2006 at 3:25 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.