The AM Forum

I was on a business trip last week and a tooth started giving me trouble.  Got home to see the dentist and he told me I have an abscessed tooth and need a root canal. Anyone ever have this procedure done?  Going in tomorrow for my first and hopefully my last but don't know what to expect.  Can't say that I like having sharp pointy implements of destruction in my mouth.

I haven't had one, but I've always been told they aren't.

It's amazing how far they've come since even a young JN like me was a kid. I just had a tooth pulled a couple of weeks ago, totally painlessly, with only a sore gum afterwards. If your dentist is even halfway decent, it won't be painful, probably just unpleasant.

I just got back from an ultrasonic cleaning today. That's a blast. They take this hook that's vibrating ultrasonically with a built-in jet of water and dig away at your teeth with it. I don't know what frequency it's at, but it's got a wicked 8kc product when it's in contact with your teeth, and that conducts through your skull very well, thankyouverymuch!

To top it off, three more days of amoxycillin and metronidazole, the latter of which turns to The Dark Side in the presence of alcohol.  :-X

Guess I should have taken care of my teeth when I was a kid.  ::)

I'm sure you'll be fine. Good luck with it.

--Thom
Keep Away One Zesty Green Cocktail

As painless as buying from Radio Mart.  Is your destist doing it or sending you to an Endodondist?  Enough Novacain and you won't feel a thing.

I had one long ago,  it didn't hurt much till after.  It was more unpleasant feeling the goings on, sounds and smells too.

My oldest son, had FOUR root canals, after being struck in the face by a ball.  If he hadn't had braces at the time he would be missing his top four front teeth.  I sat with him during the procedure.  He told me after he was more scared than in pain.  his mouth hurt some after the 'caine wore off, but that passed in a day or so.

Very interesting thread. I have an aversion to dentists, can't stand the discomfort.  But I think I need a root canal soon.   Maybe I'll take the gas, and pretend I'm at a Grateful Dead concert! ;D

I heard co-workers complain about root canal jobs as though they were the worst thing.  I've never had one myself, my wife had one about a year ago though.  She is allergic to most drugs and so had no pain killer.  The root canal job was painless, the dentist said it would be so.

Most above say it was painless too.  This is how it should be.  I've come to the conclusion that the pain is proportional to the incompetency of your dentist.

I've had two root canals.  I would recommend using Novacain as a local.

The hassle was slightly greater than having a big molar cavity worked on and takes three times as long.  Personally, I don't mind dentist visits a bit and anticipate going like getting a haircut. It's all a matter of attitude.  Just get it done and fergetaboudit...  ;D  No big deal.

The real trouble can be when you pull the wisdom teeth. I had four pulled in one sitting and suffered for a couple weeks afterwards. It all depends on your situation.

T

I have had several, and none have been painful.  Usually, by the time you need a root canal, the nerve in the tooth is dead anyway, so you shouldn't feel intense pain even if no anesthesia is used.  They always shot me pretty full anyway.  The procedure is long, and the smell on a couple of them was putrid.  I suppose that was caused by the infection that generated the problem in the first place.

When I was a kid all the dentists I ever went to were butchers, and I dreaded a dental appointment almost as much as I would dread an appointment with the executioner.  My first recollection of having a tooth filled was with no painkiller at all.  He just started drilling with one of those old fashioned slow speed drills with the motor and series of pulleys. Things got a little better later, as high speed water turbine drills came into vogue.  But by my mid-30's my teeth were on the verge of rotting out, so I finally went to a dentist in Boston, recommended by a friend.  I was really surprised - painless dentistry! 

After a few visits, I finally could relax.  Every dentist I have visited since has used similar techniques.  I suppose techniques improve over the years.  Now, when I have dental work, the hardest part is staying awake during the procedure and holding my mouth open.

Probably what saved my teeth was daily flossing.  As a kid, I remember dental floss as something you used occasionally when stuff got stuck between your teeth and you couldn't get it out.  If I had flossed daily all my life, I  probably wouldn't have so much metal in my mouth, and the root canals wouldn't have been necessary.  But I didn't learn about proper flossing until I went to that dentist in Boston.  Brushing your teeth without flossing ranks in usefulness on about the same order as male tits.

In my parents' day, it was just assumed that by age 40 or 50, most people would have a full set of false teeth.  At age 64, I still have all mine except wisdom teeth.  My present dentist says there is no excuse for anyone to lose a tooth, ever.  If I were to lose a tooth now, to me it would be comparable to losing a finger.

But I probably could buy several copies of the most expensive super-duper top-of-the-line ricebox slopbucket appliance with what I have spent on dental work the past 30 years.

Don't worry about it.  The Dentist will give you Novacaine (or something like it) and you won't feel a thing.  Plan on being in the chair for more than an hour.  That is the unpleasant part.  It is a long procedure.  Well worth it to keep the tooth!

I've had too many and I agree with the others; it should not hurt.  Anticipation is the worst part of it.  If you feel any discomfort at all tell the guy you want more happy juice.  He'll oblige.

Don is right, there really isn't much excuse for the dental troubles so many of us have.  In my case bad teeth are apparently hereditary coupled with the fact that I was lazy with dental care as a young'un.  So I've brought my problems upon myself.  And I've had a LOT of work done over the years. 

I had a toothache once about 15 years ago and my family dentist, a really great guy, told me he was surprised.  He didn't think I still had enough enamel left to decay.  Funny guy but he was telling the truth.

So for your appointment, relax.  In fact tell the guy to use a wedge and take the opportunity to catch a few ZZZZZZZZs.  That's what I do.  Unlike Don, I don't worry about it.  I like to sleep!

Good luck, you'll be just fine.

Thom,
  Click on this  for your scaling questions......................http://www.dentalfind.com/glossary/cavitron.html
  You'll find out a lot ....                                            http://www.dentalez.com/dez.asp?Go=hygiene&tab=prod&br=Star     
                            and/or                                        http://www.dhed.net/main.htm       

Yes, flossing is the key. I like Glide floss. Expensive, but smooth as Teflon. Also, the Sonic Oral B power toothbrush helps immensely.

I use to get my share of cavities when young. But, I haven't had a new cavity in fifteen years. Hard to believe it myself. It's all due to the focused brushing and flossing.

When I look at the cavity-free teeth of younger people today, especially molars, I often think that my teeth could have been like that too if I started disciplined brushing and flossing early on.

But, if ya feel bad about your own teeth, take a look at the average person's choppers who grew up in the 1920's thru 1940's... (previous dental technology generation)

T

Hey Bob,

I just had one this morning at 9:30am ;D  Not a bad deal at all.  Minor discomfort at the worse.  Dr gave me novocain. Was over in 45minutes and I was back to work at 1pm.

He gave me prescription for penacillin and 10 painkillers.  Penicillin is probably good idea  cause the root area has got some kinda infection going on.  I probably wont fill the painkiller cause there just isn't any pain.  I used to save the painkillers for when I would drink way too much.  They are good for hangover.  Wife keeps me on a short leash so no more hangovers here.

Was over your way on Sunday riding the back roads in CT.  Stopped at a Irish Pub up in Colchester (for 1) then south and east over the steel bridge by the opera house.  Didn't go thru Devil's Hopyard this time.  Ended up in Westbrook for Dinner than past Frank's house in Niantic and then home.  What great roads in CT to ride.

Don't have any concerns for the root canal.  It's really not a bad time. 

73
Bob
N9NEO

Yep. That's the unit. Pretty damned effective, I gotta say. You sure do know it when it hits a loose crown or filling, though!

That's one thing I like about this dentist, he's big on keeping up with the times. The digital x-ray setup he's got blew my mind the first time I saw it. Just pop a transducer (or whatever the proper term is) in your mouth, give it about a 10 millisecond shot of x-ray energy, and there on the PC display is a bitmap x-ray image that's gotta be a good 800 to 1000 pixels square!

That good an image with no overhead from film developing costs, I can't imagine why any practicing dentist would want to keep paying for the overhead (and almost 10x the x-ray energy per exposure) to get a postage-stamp-sized film x-ray. R.O.I., baby, R.O.I.

Don and Tom, you're both right about flossing being the key. That's where I really blew it. Most of the damage I have is from food rotting away between my teeth. Now I've found a really good dentist, I'm going on a drilling-and-blasting tear. Breaking that crown and losing the tooth was a real wake-up call.

I'll probably be going the root canal route with two molars that crumbled years ago. The dentist I went to when that happened was taking over the practice of my regular dentist, and actually argued with me about which tooth (on opposite sides of my mouth) was the one in pain. I took off the bib and walked out. That was 1997.

It took until breaking a crown, and eventually the tooth, to finally find a good dentist, get back in the chair, and fix the mess I've gotten myself into. Now I've got to make sure I don't slip back into old bad habits.

Good teeth or bad, good dental hygeine or bad, it certainly pays to have a good dentist.

BTW Tom, I'm not at all suprised you haven't had a cavity in 15 years. I haven't seen how vigorously you brush your teeth, but I've seen how vigorously you brush the dogs' teeth!  ;D

--Thom
Killer Agony One Zoinking Giant Cavity

Vogorus brushing, along with side to side brushing erodes the skin on the teeth and exposes the roots + pain, sensitivity and rotttt ...like  some things in life, go a little slower and you 'll be happy .... klc

Root Canal. Its okay. Novocaine with epinephrine makes my heart race like a mofo. I always ask for without.Lil trinket toy as a child. Now script of pain killers. ;) The tooth is now dead so as you age, it becomes brittle and prone to breakage. Prize...Gold crown and more painkillers :P

Yep, over-brushing is a problem. On the Sonic Oral B power brush they have an timer that alerts after 2 minutes. And, it pays to have a gentle pressure with a soft set of bristles.

BTW, it's funny to watch the latest hot trend of bright white teeth using these hydrogen peroxide/oxygen solution whitners.  Everybody under 30 (and all movie stars) are walking around with Tony Robbins smiles. Off-white normal teeth ain't good enuff anymore, caw mawn... ;)

Maybe I'll get a gold capped front tooth.  Or maybe a black fang would be better?

T

 " Novicane"   ---- The adrenaline is used to controll bleeding, the 'caine part is the pain killer...    maybe you can try the music/headphone routine ..... klc

I suppose in practice that one could get "enough" of some sort of xxxcaine to numb everything from your neck up.  ;D    But... actually it depends on two things, which tooth and where in the mouth and what your ability to be "blocked" by that stuff is in the first place. Part of the mouth numbs up jes fine, and part, not so fine. I seem to never get fully numb unless I am pumped so full of the stuff I am drooling for hours..

(btw, never ever heard of anyone getting a root canal with no anethstetic (sp?) at alll...)

Also, they like to use the "stuff" with epinephrine. It helps to control bleeding, make the 'caine work a bit faster. I hate friggin ephinephring - makes me anxious and jittery for nothing, imho.

I've had two or three root canals. The first was when I was 13-14 and this boy wonder "Charles Atlas" clone off and backhands me across the front choppers. Was fine with the "proceedure" until the so called dentist stuck a wee little paper cone up into the hole he had drilled in my tooth and I practically jumped out of the chair and through the ceiling. The other two were far better affairs.

But the problem is that the tooth is then dead, and eventually will still fall apart. Of course at this point for most of us, that's not a big issue. The mercury amalgam farm in my mouth <bink, blink, stutter> hasn't effected me at all so far?

Anyhow,depending on the state of the tooth you'll be needing a crown... that's where the fun starts... do some research into what's available. Get a real pro to do the job if you can. The doc-in-a-box does a fast functional job in 1/2 the time of the high-enders... and it shows. If the tooth can be seen at all, you'll be wanted the expensive porcelain type, so that it looks like a tooth. Porcelain "over" ain't the real deal... of course molars probably don't mean too much in that respect. I've got a gold and a porcelain over one now... but heck I can chew my oatmeal Zeke  ;)

Sure wish I knew nothing about this topic...

             _-_-WBear2GCR



PS. if the dentist provides it, and you like, al little NO2 or "laughing gas" in just the right amount is ok fine...

I've had three.  On the first one the root was so far gone that no anesthetic was used and I really didn't feel any pain.  The second two were on basically the same molar on opposite sides of my mouth and they flared up at the same time.  These didn't go so well.  Lots of anesthetic was used and it still hurt.  A few years later the nerve on one of them got reinfected.  When that happens they don't do another root canal, your dentist usually sends you to an oral surgeon who will do an apicoectomy.  Thats where they fix the infection by taking a short cut and slice open your gum to get at the root.  The apico didn't hurt at all.  It looks something like this:

http://instruct.uwo.ca/anatomy/636/clinical%20cases/apicoectomy/gallery/pages/03.htm  (http://instruct.uwo.ca/anatomy/636/clinical%20cases/apicoectomy/gallery/pages/03.htm)


Anyways, I remember the root canals taking more than one appointment.  The first one to open it up and pack it with material to dry it, then a return visit to make sure its OK and fill the cavity.


Sam  /  KS2AM

I need novacaine to make an appointment with the dentist....    The root canal wasn't too bad, but he started with 5 doses of novacaine, then 3 more, then some special stuff in the roof of my mouth - that was painful even after all the novacaine but it did the trick.  I think is depends on the location of the tooth. Worst part of the procedure was the stink as noted in many posts. UGH.

As an aside.  My wife & I both have a mouthfull of fillings after abt 60 years each.  I used to dread going to the dentist as a kid, always multiple fillings.  Our kids, age 25, 24, 22, have ONE filling between them.  They all grew up on well water with prescription vitamins spiked with flouride.

Enjoy! :-)

Bill N2BC

Wow.  I didn't expect such an overwhelming response to this question.  Thanks everyone.  Hopefully this will go well and without any pain. I have two fillings in my teeth both of which required a local. Hopefully the rootcanal will be similar to having the drilling and fillings.  The good news is if you want to call it that my tooth pain has been controllable with ibuprofen and when that wears off the pain is mild.   I've been on an antibiotic for a couple of days now and hopefully the infection is under control.  There hasn't been any swelling or gum tenderness unlike other abscesses I've read and heard about. I'm heading to an endodontist this morning for the procedure. 

The thing that bothers me is I've had good dental hygiene and this happened.  My dentist thinks the tooth was traumatized and the root was damaged.  He was asking me if I grind my teeth when sleeping. I told him I did not know but there have been times when I have awakened with my mouth hurting so it's possible I guess.  I brush with a soft bristle brush, floss and use a waterpick so who knows what the cause is. Hopefully, other teeth won't go this route if I am grinding during the night.  I was in car accident a number of years ago but I didn't think I hit my mouth in the accident.  The funny thing is when I called the dentist he asked me if the pain was located on the lower right side.  I said yes but at the time I didn't think anything of his question but it makes me wonder now why he targeted that area.  I guess he saw something in the last set of x-rays.  I'll have to ask him when I see him next.

I'm not lookiing forward to having a crown.  Been there done that. It's time consuming with several visits and time is something I don't have a lot of these days.  Though my dentist is an artist when it comes to making crowns.  He did one on a front tooth I broke a number of years ago and I can't even tell that it's a fake.  He's definitely a high end dentist.

Anyway, today's the day they drill a hole in my head and fix this tooth. Thanks for all the input, words of encouragement and putting me at ease. I guess it's not as bad as I thought.  I'll be gripping a pair of pliers as pain insurance.

My own story re. root canals, last fall I had a molar that was twinge-ing, and the dentist discovered it was cracked, and needed a root canal.  The root canal was painless, other than having to listen to Oprah on the TV in the background. 

Shortly after that I was at the local pharmacy, and checked my blood pressure - and discovered it had gone up 40 points over my normal!  That should have been my first warning something was up.  A week later the tooth started throbbing - it was infected.  A round of Zithromycin took care of that - temporarily.  Four months and three rounds of antibiotic later, it finally got so bad I ended up with a 103 fever, and lost 14 lb in a week.

Finally had the tooth pulled, and within a week, my blood pressure dropped back to normal, and I now feel better than I have felt in 6 months.

Talking to my neighbor who is an MD, he says he has seen a dozen times where someone gets a root canal, and within a few months develops a heart attack, heart disease, arthritis, diabetes, or some other chronic disease.  If a cracked tooth gets infected, (as mine was) it is VERY difficult to eliminate the infection, and the chronic low-grade infection wreaks havoc on your body.

Anyone getting a root canal should at the least monitor your blood pressure.  If it suddenly spikes - you could be in for some trouble.  I feel like I dodged a bullet.

Good luck to you OM.

No more painful than politics

The link between poor oral hygene and heart disease has been proven. People with  heart  problems are even premedicated before a cleaning- not a bad idea for a person with a hip/knee replacement to be evaluated before dental work..... Bleeding gums are a sign of problems and should be taken care of.
klc

Hi, Skipper ;D ;D  If that aint the truth!

The amount of pain experienced is directly proportional to the ability and generosity
of the dentist! If you have a dentist who isint chinchy with the "Joy Juice" all will be OK-FINE! I have had 6 of them with little ot no problem.

As long as your dentist doesnt spare the 'cane it is basically painless. The hardest thing is keeping your mouth wide open for the amount of time that it takes.
The really painful part of it is the friggin cost!! Between the charge for the root canal job, and the cost of the crown, now that is painful!! :o :o

                                                                                 The Slab Bacon

Yeah N20... ooops!

As far as teeth grinding, the answer is a "sports mouth guard"!

The big box Mall Wart sells them for $0.99.

You dip them in boiling water, shove them into your mouth all soft, bite and *suck* - forms to your teeth.
Buy a few. Takes a bit before you get the technique/temperature just right. I seem to lose them too.
Works great.

The dentist will do the same trick for beaucoup buck$, and not much difference in performance.

      _-_-WBear2GCR

Yep, absolutely.

Years ago the dentist saw signs of teeth grinding and fixed me with a mouthpiece that took an hour to make, fit and fit again. It cost about $300. It fit poorly and actually hurt at times. What a hack job and waste of money.

So after I lost it, being a ham, I picked up a bunch of $1 mouth guards and have used them ever since. They fit better and work FB. In addition, if you are anal about white teeth, you can add a dab of that teeth whitner when you wear it overnight. Go to bed with green teeth and wake up smiling like Tony Robbins.

T

Ooba Gooba

KC said:
You are right that bleeding gums should be taken care of but the link between poor oral hygene and heart disease was disproven I think just last year. As a person who has heart disease in his family like bugs on a headlight, I subscribed to that and increased my oral hygene, (I never was a person for flossing but now do it religiously). I was somewhat dismayed when that news was anounce but I kept at the current level of flossing and brushing. Now what happened to that Pygmie Pony?

I was much luckier than you.  My dentist was W6CS, Robert C Smithwick.   He once let me sit in his car and play with his new KWM-2 while the Novacaine was settling in.  I was a kid, not yet a ham and the KWM-2 was just out, maybe 1959, 1960.   How about that?   He went on to do great things, helped start the community college system in our area and found Medishare.  He was good dentist, too.

Five root canals.  No pain.  But in some cases the conditions they relieved were quite painful.

Jon

Bob,

Did you like your root canal?

And did you get any Hydrocodone?

Ah yes...Hydrocodone. One thing I look forward to after a dental visit. Unfortunately my endodontist never gave me any of that euphoric elixir :(

As far as root canals go, if you have a good endodontist he should be able to do most root canals painlessly without even novocaine. The pain is usally due to the infection and resulting abcess. A good dentist will open the tooth and drain the abcess and put you on an antibiotic for 12 to 14  days to kill the infection. After that he can usually proceed with the root  canal without the use of any painkiller. I have had 4 root canals, each one was  painless and required not a drop of pain killer.

Now, extracting teeth is another story. I have had impacted teeth exctracted in which the gum had to be cut open to extract the tooth. That requires lots of novocaine and the aftermath is verypainful for several days afterwards. The dentist who did the extraction gave me a hefty supply  of hydrocodone for that one. Quite a reward for underoing such a painful bloody procedure. Oh an rest assured, I NEEDED the hydrocodine. It hurt like hell for several days.

I have had several and the endodontist used no anesthetic. Nowdays they have the process down to a precise science. Root canals are a cinch. Tooth XO's are another story. Those are painful and require anesthetics and sometimes pain killers afterwards.

I have had several and the endodontist used no anesthetic. Nowdays they have the process down to a precise science. Root canals are a cinch. Tooth XO's are another story. Those are painful and require anesthetics and sometimes pain killers afterwards.

If the epinephrine affects you negatively you can request thatyour dentist use the novocaine without the epinephrine. Also, if you have high blood pressure tell the dentist and make sure he uses the novocaine without the epinephrine.

John,

If you had 4 root canals with no *caine, you had no roots that were even vaguely alive...
Otherwise you'd have been jumping out of the chair...

I had an extraction of a tooth that was amazingly badly cracked due to too much amalgam filling combined with very nice additional *rot* - had to go bye-bye, almost zilch swelling and pain after. Endodontist though... really good pro. Molar, cut the puppie in half, and whipped it out. BAMMM!

Gave me this vile swill to swish for a week afterwards and anti-boo-otics to take. No fancy codones...

The schmuck who first looked at that tooth when it was still aching and in trouble, he gave me some codones to tide me over until the anti-boo-otics kicked in... that was amusing. But I never take the full dosages myself... Yeee Haw!  :D :o

           _-_- WBear2GCR

Oh they were alive. If they weren't they wouldn;t have hurt enough to get me to the dentist. I'm one of those types of atleast used to be) who avoids tyhe dentist till it hurts so bad.


They have it down to a science these days. Nothing like the old days.


Yes,they will sometimes give you opiates to ease the pain till the infection subsides. That's a standard procedure. Unless I am in very bad pain I like to save the hydrocodines for when I am not.. Much like heroween, they are opiates and will make you high. Just a precaution. Don;t nobody eat em for too long or you'll be singin the blues..

Boy when it rains it pours...

Haven't seen my cat now for several days.  I'm concerned something happened to her and it's my fault.
I'm being attacked by carpenter ants and none of the store bought stuff seems to work to stop them. Hopefully, it didn't do its job on my cat.

No root canal yesterday.  Endodontists is on the fence about doing a root canal. Seems to think the tooth can be saved. That's a small bit of good news. The bad news he referred me to a periodontist and so I made an appointment for Monday. Apparently the gum has pulled away from the back of the tooth and exposed the upper portion of the root causing the pain.  Pain is nearly gone, antibiotic is doing its job I guess especially since my stomach feels like crap.  Endodontists seems to think I'm in a very early stage of periodontitis.

Root Canal can hurt like a %^&$! I just had one done yesterday, and another three weeks before that, and another one year ago and five years ago. I'm no stranger to that type of work. Now to answer your question: Yes, it can be very painful, especially after the novacane wears off.

My advice is to DEFINITELY request nitrous oxide or "laughing gas" besides the regular novacane. The nitrous oxide will make it more tolerable besides giving your head some "candy" - hi! After the prodedure, they flush you out with raw O2 and send you on your way. Quite literally, "It's the only way to fly" with any type of painfilled work from the Dentist.

I've had root canal work done with or without any "aide" and it's never a pleasant proposition. The best I can say is you'll be glad when it's over.

Regards,
           Joe N3IBX

Wow, lots of recent root canals being done amongst the guys!  Glad yours is over with, Bob.

Bob - about your cat.  We have several, one being a Morris orange cat. She will take off for a week at a time and then return like nothing happened. Fully fed and groomed. We are convinced she has a second home somewhere.

So I made up an ID tag and put a small collar on her. It requests a phone call if found. When she takes off again, maybe we will find who the other significant is.. ;)

T

One of the wifes chats has a microchip implanted in it. For ID purposes only.... Lots of company people live in the hood...   klc

Better sweep that cat... it's reporting every move you make back to an "undisclosed location..."!!

                     _-_-WBear2GCR



PS. Holotko, you one of those G. Gordo Liddy types? Hands to the flame??

Thats OK if its the Gov. doing it... The Gov. cares about ME and will do me no harm.... klc

Hey Tom,
Yes, lots of people with root canals recently.  What's up with that.  It sounds like a pretty common thing.

Unfortunately, I don't think I'm out of the woods just yet. I'm headed to a periodontist for a third opinion on the tooth early this week.  Even though I didn't get the canal it's still possible that it's coming down the pike.  It all depends on what should be done I guess. The endodontist says the nerve in the tooth looks good and is still alive and the lower part of the root looks good. He did notice that the gum has pulled away from the upper portion of the root thus exposing it. Some deterioration has occurred.  Today I have no pain at all.  The Amoxicillin is working. I'm off the Ibuprofen I've been eating for the last week. So there's still some work to be done. I want to nip this in the bud so to speak and quit procrastinating. Unfortunately, dentists specialize only in certain areas and now it's a waiting game to see who wants to do what. Is there such a thing as a dentist who does everything?  I'm glad the pain is under control. Now I can comfortably wait until my next visit.

It's been three days since I've seen the cat, Little Miss Piggy. Every once in a while she'd disappear for a day but other times she was like clock work and she'd be here.  Maybe you're right and she's off wandering around.  I'm a little nervous however because you know how cats like to lick themselves.  I sprayed around the foundation of the house to battle the ants and though I have never seen her hanging around the edges of the foundation it's possible she got something on her and licked it off.   Maybe the odor of the pesticide is keeping her at a distance too, who knows?  I guess it's wait and see.

Hi Bob,

Oh, I see... you didn't actually get the job done yet, but still nursing it. I've found that they will get better for a while, but later on it will flare up and you will have to have it done eventually.  My better dentists over the years have always said to only do the work that was currently needed. A few others were more aggressive and always had a list of stuff they wanted to do NOW. I stuck with the do as you need it guys.

I've had to spray for ants every year for the last twenty years here. We've had up to seven cats at one time and all of them were free to wander. Not one has ever disappeared for good nor has died or gotten sick as a result of the spraying. Most lived to old age, like 14-19 years old.

Some return home every day, while others willl occassionally take off for a week at most, but always return. Never had one killed by a wild animal either.  People are known to drop off stray cats out here in the woods, so we get a new one every year or two. Right now there's just two cats due to a rash of old age crapouts a coupla years ago and no replacements yet...  ;D  Yaz gets along FB with them all. He's very attached to the Morris cat and gets depressed when she takes off for more than a day.

If your cat comes back, keep him in the house for a few weeks to break the roaming cycle and see what happens next.

T

I've had a few root canal jobs, and I have four-root molars (most people have three-root molars), so they were unusually big jobs.  I don't remember any serious pain from the work or afterwards, just awkward discomfort and of course the wonderful flavor of the rot that got drilled out. 

I still have one bad molar that kicked up bigtime back in the mid-90s, and of course I was broke and had no dental coverage at the time.  Oh boy, did that hurt.  Once in a while it swells a little, but it seems to have done its worst long ago.  I suspect that if I were to have it worked on now, it would involve some major excavation work.  I'm leaving well enough alone.

Correct Tom.  I should know better by Tuesday the actual outcome of the tooth whether it can be saved, repaired, or yanked. I'm just glad I don't have discomfort anymore.  It was driving me nuts.  I was getting to the point where I felt like pulling it myself. 

I knew a guy who worked at amotorcycle shop I used to hang out at when I was a teen.  He had a tooth that was bothering him.  Rather than go to a professional to pull it he pulled it himself using just his fingers and tossed the tooth in the trash. I thought that was pretty nuts.

OK on the cat and ant spray. Pesticides make me nervous especially when I carpet bomb my yard in the manner I did last week but I do like the end result.  I'll keep an eye out for her. Thanks.

No no, not me pal. Although I went to the same school as Liddy I am not into the self hurt and self pain thing. I hate pain just as much as the next guy. And I dread tooth pain!! And tooth pain always happens at the worst times, like a holiday weekend when the dentist isn't in. Beleive me I am greatful for pain meds. However,  I have found that for most tooth pain large  doses of OTC Ibuprofen works quite well.  I just  take the "prescription dose" rather than the doseage on the label. As for the stronger (codan) type meds I prefer to save those for other occasions...  ;) ;) ;)

Tom,
Little Miss Piggy came home tonight to pig out on a big bowl of sardines and mackeral.  Thanks for the reassurances.
BW

The most effective ant control I've found is liquid boric acid bait.  You can make it but I bought it, Terro was the brand if I recall correctly.  It's thick sugar water with some amount of boric acid.  I've tried a lot of things, all kinds of pesticides.  None of that worked.  This stuff did.   Argentine ants are what we have out here.  They own the state.

http://www.ps.uci.edu/~tomba/ants/
http://www.terro.com/
http://www-biology.ucsd.edu/news/article_051500.html

Jon

YAAAAY!!

After a week of worry, it's a real joyful moment when they finally show up, isn't it?


T

yeah, she gave me this "what's the big deal look" when I asked her where she's been.

Couple topics flew by there...


antibiotics....

I will only take penicillen...all the others mess me up.  And good ol' pennicillen does wonders for any infection I've ever had. 


periodontics...

My dentist a few years ago suggested that I have a periodontist look at me.  But he also said that he (my dentist) was pretty indifferent to the subject, like, if the perio... said my teeth would fall out....they might not...and also the other case.  So I went for the look-see and came away thinking it seemed like somewhat of a scam.

Now, ten years later, the teeth he made no mention of are long gone...the ones he was concerned about are mostly doing fine.  Be careful of periodontics.  It's obscenely expensive and painful and Delta doesn't cover it.

Flossing....

I only learned about this thing called a "proxa-brush" in '91...wish it had been years earlier.  It's a little brush that brushes between teeth.  It does a wonderful job easier than floss. 

Oh, yea, on root canals.  I especially like being "irrigated" with peroxide and bleach.  Two wonderferful substances to have in my mouth.  Glad the assistant was good with the aspirator.

Hi Phil,
No more carpenter ants.  Diatomaceous earth did the trick initially.  I saw quick results with that powder. Nice thing about it its not harmful to people or pets.  As insurance I did a little carpet bombing with ant killer around the edge of the yard where I thought the ants were coming from and around the foundation. It's been 2 days and not an ant in the house or garage.

Right now the cat is an outdoor cat.  She started hanging around the house back in December.  I started feeding her because I became concerned about her being able to survive the winter and be strong enough to defend herself. Also built her a shelter underneath the deck.  Unfortunately, she's still afraid of me and won't get to close but she's warming up to me.  Once I get control of her she's getting a bath and seeing a vet. 

Okay, I have both carpenter ants and rotting wood that needs replacement in a section of wall. I also have a box of that diatomaceous earth. The question I have, how do you use it ?? Do you leave containers of the powder laying around ? Do you spread it where the ants walk ? Do you mix it with a bait ?? I'd love to give it a try but I have no idea of the proper way to use it.

John,
I took a coffee can with a plastic lid on it.  Drilled a bunch of holes in it with a 1/4" drill and made a big salt shaker out it.  Then just sprinkled the powder like it was confectionery sugar.  I sprinkled a 2 foot wide band around the foundation.  Did a 3 foot wide border along an area where I figured the ants were coming from.  Also did one edge of my driveway with a 1 foot wide band.  You want to get a uniform spread so the ants walk through it, get it on them and/or eat it.  I found they either walked through it or avoided the stuff.  I saw a reduction in ant activiity outside soon after.  It wasn't until a day or two later I noticed a significant decline in ant activity in the house.  I attribute that to them being in the house for that time period rather than getting into the house. It's been 5 or 6 days now and not an ant to be seen. I think the sooner you act on ant activity the better.  I went to war about 2 days into noticing the activity.  I think if I waited longer I would have had to call a professional.

I used a bag packaged by a company called Safer Brand.  It came in a yellow bag with a green label.  The stuff is baited.  The theory is they go for the bait laden D.E. and consume it.  The D.E. apparently dehydrates the critters rather than poison them.

A google search using keywords "diatomaceous earth carpenter ants" brings up a bunch of info on the subject.

I'm stressin' out big time.  I've been told I'm going to lose the tooth this coming Wednesday. It's got me ticked off enough that I had a severe migraine and went down to the company hospital to have the BP checked and BP was well above normal. They sent me home to cool off.

Now the question is, what's it like to have a tooth pulled?

Had the tooth extracted this morning.  Turns out the back of the tooth was cracked and became infected down to the root.  A root canal wouldn't have fixed the problem considering how damaged the tooth was. The extraction didn't go smoothly and took nearly two hours. The local is wearing off and it does not feel too good right now. I look lke a veteran hockey player. 

Bummer, dude. Sorry to hear that.

One word: ibuprofen. Three more words: lots of it. It helped more than the codeine did when I had my wisdoms out. It does double-duty on both the pain and the swelling.

I was very fortunate when I had this last tooth out, it was already broken into several pieces and didn't put up much of a fight coming out. Sounds like your dentist had to go spelunking to get the job done.

Don't know if (s)he gave you any scripts, but I've found ibuprofen to be the most effective thing you can take right about now.

I just had about $2,200 worth of heavy drilling and blasting done yesterday, and Delta covers a whopping $700 of it. The rest came out of my pocket. Did the entire right side in one sitting, took a little over four hours. Worth it, though. I had lost fillings on facial teeth, which was giving me that authentic Maine smile. Four fillings up top, three on bottom, one of which was replacing about 3/4 of the tooth. HUGE improvement, and looks like a million bucks. This guy does great work, I gotta say.

We were afraid that decimated molar would need a root canal, but he actually managed to save the tooth and reconstruct it with medicated emalgam. Turns out the filling that had been in that tooth for years had way too much mercury in the mix, and never totally solidified. That's part of the reason the tooth crumbled so readily.

After leaving his office having been spared the root canal, I wondered how you'd made out. Sorry to hear it turned out that way. If it's any consolation (I'm sure it's not, but I'll say it anyway), even a bad extraction is loads cheaper than any root canal.

Hope you heal up okay. Good luck.

--Thom
Kilimanjaro Africa One Zulu Goat Cheese

Hey Thom,

Sounds like you have a mouthful of work to be done, pardon the pun.  Wow. Over 4 hours keeping your mouth open. Your jaw must be tired. Hope you get it all fixed very quick.

I was in the chair for nearly 2 hours. The thing that made the job difficult was he told me I had long roots that were curved.  So that required a boat load of bone grinding to expose the roots.  The bone had to be ground down because the back side of the tooth caused a large amount deterioration to the bone so grinding was in the works anyway.  The good news is the rest of my teeth are OK fine.  The thing that got me all torqued up was I essentially had perfect teeth and this came out of the blue.  But the doc indicated that the tooth was cracked so it wasn't from neglect. 

Got tons of ibuprofen.  Also have some hydrocordone.  I have no desire to use the pain killers.  The ibuprofen seems to holding its own right now. I've been eating ibuprofen for a couple of weeks now.  Can't wait to stop taking it and the antibiotics.  Just wished the friggin bleeding would stop.  Just got to take it easy for a while.

Thanks
Bob

For moderate to sever tooth pain I have found the ibuprofen works quite well in prescription level doses. The OTC dose may not cut it.  Another non-narcotic that works very well for moderate and severe pain is Edotolac. Matter of fact I managed on one of those very 6 hours as opposed to several Ibuprofens every 3 hours.  The advantage of the narcotic stuff is in getting to sleep when you have pain.

The principle difference ithat I have found between the narco painkillers versus the non narco's is that the non-narco's deal with the swelling and take the pain away. The narco stuff raises the tolerance threshold, you are aware that the pain is there but it just doesn't bother you. That's why they often prescribe the combo drugs, usually a narcotic in combo with an NSAID.

Sgt. Friday from Dragnet talking to a frightened women with his deep voice:

" It's narcotics, ma'am. Those people will do anything to get 'em"....  ;D

T

I'm well over halfway there now. He literally did everything to the right of the centerline of my skull. That's where most of the facially-visible dental atrocities were committed, so it did the world of good.

It actually wasn't all that bad, Bob. We all (the dentist, two assistants, and myself) had each other's body language down in pretty quick order, so I knew when I could rest my jaw, and they all knew when the swallow reflex was getting ready to kick in (not that they weren't diligent about the suction guns, but they all had their hands full with me yesterday).

I go back in on the 5th to have the other steel crown pried off to get a look at what's still under there. Stainless steel crowns are good for a year or so, this one (and the one that busted open over the tooth I just lost) has been in since I was 14.

I'm 34 now.


Damn. I was lucky, and mine was from neglect. The crown split about two years ago, and I kept telling myself I'd find a dentist and get it fixed.

Then the tooth broke into three crowns and six or seven root segments.

This was my first time seeing this dentist, and the combination of painless extraction, state of the art technology being put to good use, and a mixture of pride/perfectionism in his work and passion about his science are the reasons I've been going back on such a regular basis and paying this kind of cash.

He raked out the socket with a spoon for a few minutes, and told me I'd just dodged the infection bullet. I'll be damned if he wasn't right. Didn't even need ibuprofen afterwards. Gum was a little sore, that's it.

Mind you, this was a secondary molar. From what you've said so far, I'm guessing yours was a bit more facial so the roots were probably a bit more convoluted.


Go up to the usual prescription dose if you need to, but I won't advocate going any further than that. You're probably already aware of the potential risks to your liver, and sometimes kidneys and/or pancreas. I've also heard lately that the binder doesn't necessarily help with digestive reactions to ibuprofen, so you might be better off getting the prescription itself if you need that much in one dose.

I ate some oxycodone when my molar shattered. Left me really groggy, but in too much agony to sleep. I'd stick to the ibuprofen.

Again: good luck, Bob.

--Thom
Killer Agony One Zipper Got Caught

?????  will you start to floss now ??????       klc

If that was aimed at me, the answer is yes.

If it wasn't, the answer is yes.

Badoom boom... thank you, I'm here all week!

--Thom
Keep Away One Zero Giggle Comedian

Hey Thom,

That's good news that you're beyond the half way point.   I'm sure you don't enjoy dental work especially considering all the work you're having done but in the long run it will be worth it.  I haven't had much dental work in mouth.  I have no fillings. I do have  a crown from a front tooth that got broken when I was 8 years old which was crowned with a stainless.  I had that for 7 or 8 years before getting a porcelin crown.  But excluding exams and cleaning that has been the only dental work I've had in my mouth and I'm 46.  I was very surprised and distressed when he told me it had to come out considering the condition my teeth are in.  For the little work I'm having I don't like it much.  Especially the squealing and odor of that drill against the bone.

Well, I fared the night pretty good.  It seems the bleeding and oozing subsided substantially during the night.  I have a little today but I'm going to spend the day horizontal and keep the BP to a minimum and it should stop by then.  Pain is about a 3 on a scale of 1 to 10. It's gone away pretty fast.

I wasn't aware that ibuprofen can be potentially damaging to the liver and other organs.  I can't wait to get off of it then since I've been taking it continually for 3 weeks.  Hopefully today will be my last day for it.

From this point forward I have to let the area heal for several months and then go for another round of drilling and then an installation of an implant sometime in the late fall.

Good luck on the 5th.  You're not to far away from completing the work.  You're to young to lose your teeth.

Thanks for the advice and support.
Bob