slosh down the pepper!

Endodontics 101 + 924

Following the 1st part of the toothy saga on 14 Oct, I went through the 2nd part on 3rd Nov. Similar to the first, the most painful part remained to be that of the injection of the anaesthesia. After the shots, the dentist didn't wait for 5 - 10mins for the effect to kick in. Instead he proceeded right away to remove the temporary filling that covered the opening to the root canals.

Whatever pain there was, it was probably imaginery. I was more fearful of him accidentally knocking down the neighbouring molar, or even worse, the very one he was repairing. :-s Afterall, it has a large cavity which meant a weaker structure to begin with.

There were more exchanges of tools between the nurse and the dentist this time round. I can't exactly figure out what he was doing. There was the spraying of some acidic & pungent tasting liquid which would sometimes leak through the rubber dam and irritate my throat. Then there was the constant dabbing of a thin-like plastiky looking tube dabbed with some kind of greenish looking filling into each of my 3 root canals. Then come a bigger dollop of whitish filling to seal the opening of the canal.

The Sharp brand flat-screen HDTV was definitely bigger than I remembered! It looked one-and-a-half times bigger than my own 32-inch Samsung. Then again, as usual, I can't see what was going on in the black box since the dentist blocked 70% of my view.

The monotonous drilling & filling provided a very hypnotic feeling... and my hand unconsciously dropped from the chest area to the chair.. fwah.. how embarrassing! Yet the first thing that came to TB's mind was: "whoa, he's so good till you can fall asleep!"

I also took a total of 4 x-rays!

The end product:


I realised the bluish tint is not listerine. It is one of those funny liquids the dentist sprayed onto it. Observe the repaired tooth carefully and you will notice a dent in the centre.

Dentist continued to be not that optimistic about my condition. He explained to me that the cavity was located all the way up to the insides of the gum. The subsequent crown that followed the root canal treatment could only cover up to the top of the gum, so... possible decay could still happen! EEKS! I am praying very hard that it doesn't happen. Don't make my money ill-spent!

Total damage till date:

1st visit - $455 (inclusive of $35 for the "ring" & $10 for painkillers)
2nd visit - $570 (nurse never told me the breakdown)

There's still the crown & the follow up visit 6 months later to monitor the condition of the root canal. SHRIEKY.

posted by slingwoof @ 11/06/2006 09:04:00 PM