Monday, August 29, 2022

Getting to the root of the problem


          I headed to the endodontist this morning with the same enthusiasm each of Henry’s wives showed heading to the tower.

Root canal day. After the chirpy assistant took my blood pressure (fine, by the way. I have the BP of a reptile, always have.), she laid a heavy apron over me – the kind they put on you before Xrays.

“Xrays?” I innocently asked.

“Oh, yes, we will take some, but we’ll keep this on during your procedure. A lot of the patients really like it!”

“Ah, like a thunder shirt on a dog,” I replied. It seemed futile to tell her that for me the sensation was that of being pinned to the chair.

The endodontist breezed in, elbow bumped me in greeting, and got to work. I had suggested that if they happened to have some general anesthetic lying around, that would be just dandy with me, but I will say this guy was a maestro with the syringe. Thanks be to the heavens. My mouth very soon had as much sensitivity as a cinder block.

Aside from having a rubber square draped over half of my face, and enough hardware to rebuild the Eiffel Tower inserted for over an hour, it was okay.

Good thing, since I’m having another one done the end of September.

Oh, and the cost – and not covered by insurance – was $2,000.

13 comments:

  1. I never had a root canal that lasted. Fingers crossed that yours will last forever. :)

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  2. I remember having one done by a regular dentist, about 48 years ago now, the whole thing took about an hour and I never had anymore trouble from that tooth. Every one I've had done since is a three visit job, where they remove the root and then pack in some temporary filling and two weeks later you go back and they do the same thing until the final visit gets you the final proper filling. They say it's to make sure the tooth isn't going to get re-infected or some such rubbish, but if I could find an endodontist who wasn't booked out for the next five years I would have gone there instead. None of it matters now since I have lost most of those teeth.

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    1. That's one solution. I think some portion of an older generation - my mother-in-law for one - at some point just had them all pulled and went for dentures.

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  3. I sympathize. I had a dental emergency last night, today found I need s crown. No dental coverage. $1100 for something you can hardly see.
    I had sn xray and had to ask the tech afterwards to remove the lead apron. 90s outside, hot as hell under the apron. I wonder if this is a new thing, about pressure blankets? I hate being pressed down. She looked surprised I wanted it off after its job was done.

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    1. I agree. What a boring way to spend money!!

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  4. I like my dentist, and she does such appalling things in my mouth. I don't understand myself.

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    1. I know - you can't see what's going on and just have to hope they're not just playing with an erector set in your mouth.

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  5. Ouch. Dentistry is very expensive here too. And that heavy apron weighs a ton.

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    1. Amazing that insurance companies haven't figured out there's a connection between dental and body health.

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  6. Oh boy! Quite the day for you but I’m glad it wasn’t too bad. I think it’s a little odd they kept the x- ray apron on you. I’ve never had a root canal- had as much dental work done as possible before retirement ( and coverage ended). Best of luck on your next appointment!

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