Ok, so, yeah, while getting a root canal has made my top 10 list of things NEVER to do again, it wasn’t nearly as bad as I feared. Of course, I haven’t exactly made it through the entire recovery, I’m sitting here hopped up on 600 milligrams of ibuprofen. But – the fact that 600 mg of ibuprofen takes care of the pain – vs. the codeine goodness I got for my wisdom teeth – must mean it’s not that bad, right?
One of the worst things about it was holding my mouth open for an hour. Even all numbed up, serious pain started in my jaw about half way through. I thought for a second that my novocaine had warn off, then I realized the pain was in the joint near the tooth they were working on – not in the actual tooth.
The worst thing about it, though, is all the stuff they put in my mouth: some kind of metal ring around my tooth, a rubber sheet with just a hole for my tooth, a bite guard, mr. suction, all kinds of dental implements, and the dentist’s hands. I had no idea how much I hated having my mouth covered by a rubber sheet until this afternoon. It was strangely suffocating, even though I had no trouble breathing through my nose. I think I suffer from rubber-sheet-over-the-mouth-o-phobia.
So, here I sit with my shaken-baby headache (seriously, can they make a drill that doesn’t completely rattle your head??) and a temporary filling. Oh, and 3 less tooth-nerves. And a serious determination to never need another root canal.