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icepixieMy actual root canal this morning was actually much less exciting than the "getting numb" part. I warned the endodontist that it takes "kill an elephant" quantities of anesthetic to numb my mouth, and he responded by doubling his usual dosage. Which gave me a mild reaction from the epinephrine used in the solution to make it last longer, but at least that was over after a few minutes of trembling and feeling sick.
Still wasn't numb, though. He gave me more, waited for it to sink in, started drilling. ABORT ABORT ABORT. He gave me a worried look, said I was already almost at the maximum, and made noises about getting one of the other dentists in the practice to put me under for this procedure. Then he gave me one last shot in the roof of my mouth--he said this was all he could give me before dire side effects could occur, and if it didn't work I was definitely going to have to be put to sleep--which luckily did the trick. (The dental assistant claimed I would be numb for hours and hours after it was over. Yeah, it started wearing off on the drive home. I definitely suspect I have this mutated gene.)
I must ask my regular dentist if he shoots me up in a different place than normal or if after fifteen years of experience with me he just pegs my dosage at the maximum right off without fiddling around with normal amounts, so I can give better instructions to new people.
After that, it was really only about twenty minutes of drilling and poking and pouring bleach down the empty canals (seriously, it smelled like a swimming pool even through the dental dam), all of which I could vaguely tell was going on but at least didn't hurt. The process of how a root canal is done is actually rather fascinating (they fill the empty root canals with gutta-percha! How very Victorian!), but I must admit I wasn't keen on getting a blow by blow description while it was happening to me.
It definitely seems to have fixed a lot of my problems, anyway. I'm still on massive amounts of ibuprofen and the odd half a hydrocodone because my gums are swollen to twice their normal size again, and I still can't chew anything tougher than an overcooked noodle on that side, but at least my tooth no longer hurts when I so much as touch my tongue to it, or when my cheek rests against the rim of real tooth exposed above my temporary crown. And the pressure under the crown is gone too, which is a major relief. They reseated my temp more comfortably, as well, and my bite feels less off than it did before. I should, they say, be back to normal in a week and then I can get the permanent crown.
*
In other news, this weekend I went to Music City Crepes, which is the closest I've come to those awesome food truck crepes in Paris. To be perfectly honest, I'm not sure anything here could quite compare to a warm gob of Nutella wrapped in pastry on a freezing spring Parisian night, though. Anyway, these guys could use more Nutella in their Nutella crepe, but the veggie crepe with mushrooms, black olives, pesto, and spinach was delicious. I will definitely be going back sometime.
I also saw a bottle of real maple syrup there for much less than grocery stores usually charge, so now it is mine and it is delicious.
Still wasn't numb, though. He gave me more, waited for it to sink in, started drilling. ABORT ABORT ABORT. He gave me a worried look, said I was already almost at the maximum, and made noises about getting one of the other dentists in the practice to put me under for this procedure. Then he gave me one last shot in the roof of my mouth--he said this was all he could give me before dire side effects could occur, and if it didn't work I was definitely going to have to be put to sleep--which luckily did the trick. (The dental assistant claimed I would be numb for hours and hours after it was over. Yeah, it started wearing off on the drive home. I definitely suspect I have this mutated gene.)
I must ask my regular dentist if he shoots me up in a different place than normal or if after fifteen years of experience with me he just pegs my dosage at the maximum right off without fiddling around with normal amounts, so I can give better instructions to new people.
After that, it was really only about twenty minutes of drilling and poking and pouring bleach down the empty canals (seriously, it smelled like a swimming pool even through the dental dam), all of which I could vaguely tell was going on but at least didn't hurt. The process of how a root canal is done is actually rather fascinating (they fill the empty root canals with gutta-percha! How very Victorian!), but I must admit I wasn't keen on getting a blow by blow description while it was happening to me.
It definitely seems to have fixed a lot of my problems, anyway. I'm still on massive amounts of ibuprofen and the odd half a hydrocodone because my gums are swollen to twice their normal size again, and I still can't chew anything tougher than an overcooked noodle on that side, but at least my tooth no longer hurts when I so much as touch my tongue to it, or when my cheek rests against the rim of real tooth exposed above my temporary crown. And the pressure under the crown is gone too, which is a major relief. They reseated my temp more comfortably, as well, and my bite feels less off than it did before. I should, they say, be back to normal in a week and then I can get the permanent crown.
*
In other news, this weekend I went to Music City Crepes, which is the closest I've come to those awesome food truck crepes in Paris. To be perfectly honest, I'm not sure anything here could quite compare to a warm gob of Nutella wrapped in pastry on a freezing spring Parisian night, though. Anyway, these guys could use more Nutella in their Nutella crepe, but the veggie crepe with mushrooms, black olives, pesto, and spinach was delicious. I will definitely be going back sometime.
I also saw a bottle of real maple syrup there for much less than grocery stores usually charge, so now it is mine and it is delicious.
