The Pain (?) of a Root Canal

They didn’t make you pay on the spot?

More painful to your wallet, really.

My only one wasn't too painful either, but it was just a couple of years ago. I always thought that if they dug the nerve out completely, there shouldn't be too much pain afterward.

I had a root canal about twenty years ago and was expecting misery afterward, but there was no pain at all. Except maybe the injection of anesthetics before the procedure. Unfortunately that tooth was extracted years after and replaced by an implant.

R1, I had to pay a small amount. I still need the post and the crown. But this was the hard part of filling the canals, opening the tooth, etc.

There should be little pain from the root canal, since the root is totally removed. About 40 years ago I had a root canal that failed. I had to return to the dentist's office 3 times in one day as every time he'd think he had all the root removed the horrible pain would return just as soon as the Novocain wore off. On my 3rd return I demanded that he just pull the tooth because I simply couldn't tolerate more pain. He finally gave up and did just that. I've had 2 other root canals since then and had no issues with either of them and little to no pain.

I've had two root canals. To me, they didn't feel any different from getting a cavity filled.

I don't know why people fear them so much.

I just had my first this year. So many people have talked about how painful it is - I remember old jokes about how awful it was, from when I was a kid - but I agree, OP, it was easy peasy.

The uncomfortable part was keeping my mouth pretty wide open for a long-ish period of 20-30 minutes. Go ahead, make the joke about having a huge cock stuffed in there for a long time, lol. But that was really the only bad thing, and they did give me a few 30 second breaks to close and open a few times so the mouth muscles wouldn't spasm.

The insurance was a pain because our root canal dentist is out of network for all insurances, but then our insurance still paid anyway, it's some kind of weird setup that I guess is more common with root canal dentists. Insurance paid like 80-85 percent so it was pretty reasonable for the remaining amount.

That sounds awful, R4.

Funny, I just had a root canal last week too. It wasn't fun by any means but being on nitrous for all that time made it perfectly bearable. I love nitrous.

The root canal was $1500.

I was molested by the Chief Purser while our cruise ship was going through the Panama Canal.

Were these incessant Lorna Luft posts EVER funny? i have been on DL for more than two decades and I never remember them being anything but tedious.

Fancy a root, love?

First World problems.

I had my first one when I was age 20, which was 40 years ago. Very painful at the time. I had my third one about 4 years ago, and there was relatively minor pain .

Yes, R14, nobody in the developing world has painful tooth problems.

ALL dental work was painful in the past because dentists weren’t trained to give Novocaine. With painkillers, most everything is pain free. I won’t say implants since I’ve never had one and I hear from others it’s painful. They drill into your jaw of course and don’t want to prescribe codine or something because they think six pills will make you an addict.

Had my only root canal 20 years ago. The procedure seemed way over the top, but no pain.

The procedure cost nearly $2,000 in 2005.

That explains, R17, why, going back as recent as 50 years ago, talk of fear of the dentist was such a common refrain.

I’ve had three. No pain any time and boy did it relieve the previous pain so much.

[quote] The true pain, of course, will come with the bill.

He's here all week folks!

I’ve had two root canals. No pain afterwords. Make sense because the dentist is removing the nerves that would transmit pain

I had one about 6 months ago. The dentist wasn't able to get the tooth completely numb at first. Midway through the drilling, there was suddenly intense pain as the drill hit exposed nerve. But I stopped them and told them. They did another round of novocaine, and although the remainder of the procedure wasn't pain free, it was tolerable. Afterwards the tooth pain that brought me into the procedure was gone. (Extreme cold and heat sensitivity - also pressure sensitivity).

Then there are dentists today who aren’t good at giving the shot, especially when they have to hit the nerve block on the lower making the entire side of the jaw numb. An endodontist who does root canals MUST know how to do it right.

About 15 years after a root canal, I had to have the same tooth done again! The dentist said that redos are common and I was lucky it lasted 15 years

R25 I had a root canal that lasted almost 40 years before the remaining tooth root had decayed. It had to be removed and I had a bone graft, and later had an implant.

R26, I’m scheduled to get an implant next month—with a graft. Apparently the whole process will take months.

How was your experience ?

I think the way they used to be done, decades ago, was different, which is where the reputation of being very painful comes from. A woman I worked with once, who was from Taiwan, described it as being absolutely agonizing. Apparently they could not give Novocaine because they needed to check that the nerve and tooth pulp was completely removed, which required the patient telling them whether or not they could still feel pain, or anything at all. So they kept asked if her, after drilling and scraping: "Can you feel that?" And when she said she could, tears rolling down her face from the pain, they would still and scrape more using a small wire pipe cleaner tool that scraped out the tooth root channels, or whatever they are called. I think they have since developed instruments that let them see into the channels so they know when they are done, rather than relying on the patient to feel pain and gauge it that way. I have had 4 root canals and none of them were painful during or after the procedure.

R27. I’m not R26, but the process is three appointments. Periodontist for extraction, bone graft, and implant. After you’ve healed (a few weeks, varies by patient) second appointment with the dentist for crown fabrication fitting. Then another for fixation of the crown by your dentist.

Mine was eight weeks start to finish.

Sounds expensive

Any dental work leaves me with a terrible headache.

R27 26 here. For me I got the extraction and the graft the same day. They said the period for the bone to grow was likely 3-6 month. I went back after 3 for a check-up and they said about 2 more months. I;m waiting the full 6 months to be sure.

The only serious pain that I had that was associated with a root canal was the tooth pain before the procedure.

R27 here—my upcoming implant sounds a bit more complicated.

I go in for the extraction and graft. It’ll take four months for the graft to attach. Then the dentist will go through the graft and into my sinus to add a domed implant. The domed part is necessary because the graft alone is 2 mm less that it needs to be. The dome into my sinus will add those two mms. That will take another 4 months to heal. And then the crown gets added

An implant can be up to a two year commitment. I've had 2 and maybe another one is coming, although the problem tooth is not giving me any grief at the moment, so I'm postponing. Depending on a person's mouth situation and whether or not they need a bone graft, it can break down into. A) extraction, plus 2 or 3 months for that to heal B) Bone graft with 5 or 6 months to make sure it has integrated into the jab C) drilling of the holding screw into the jaw with 3-6 months to make sure that it integrates into the jaw and D.) getting the crown made and matched to the color of your other teech.

I do have to say, that after it is all done, it's a strong pain-free tooth and you quickly forget even which tooth has been implanted because it feels (to the tongue) identical to all the other teeth.

I don't recall my one root canal being particularly painful, but I had it in the wake of a quadruple wisdom tooth extraction where I woke up from under the anesthetic as the oral surgeon was sawing an impacted tooth in half. I think anything short of having my sternum cracked with a rib spreader would have paled in comparison after that.

There were some jabs of pain while the dentist was working on the tooth interior, beyond the sting of novocaine injections, but of similar intensity if I recall correctly. And just sore gums for a couple of days after, which I've also had after a crown without a root canal.