Focus people. Focus!

I wish I could say that Phase 3 of my root canal came and went.  But it came and it's kind of stuck with me.  Allow me to explain...

Everything was pretty similar to Phase 2.  My dentist dug out the temporary filling and then started to fill it my tooth with the permanent filling.  I don't know why they couldn't just put the permanent stuff in the first time and make this a 2 part process.  I'm sure there are reasons, but those were not fully explained to me.  Of course I didn't ask either, but I will next time I'm in there.  Yet I digress...

I'm in the chair and all is going well.  He's digging out the temporary stuff and after that is all said and done, starts filling the tooth in with the permanent stuff.  Now it's important that all the spaces are filled, otherwise there is opportunity for decay from the inside again.  So he has to make sure that he gets that filling all the way up in the roots.  Basically, from what I can tell, this consists of putting the filling material on something small and needle like and shoving it into the empty spaces (ie - the roots) of my tooth.  All is well for the first 3 roots.  Ah, but I am one of that lucky 10% who has the 4th root.

Since the first 3 roots went so well, the conversation between the dentist and the dental assistants increased.  They were talking about carnival, who's playing and who's not, internet phone services (Skype vs. something called MagicJack), and the cost of various office items (gel tip pens) in Trinidad vs. the cost of the same item in the states.  All very stimulating indeed - although I will say that I was a bit intrigued about that MagicJack thing.

So Dr. Dentist starts packing the filling into the last root.  He went a little too deep and I winced.  There was pain but at least it was quick.  Unfortunately, I don't think he saw the wince because the next little pack of filling went too deep.  This time there was A LOT of pain and it was not so quick.  From what I can gather, or at least what it felt like, was this needle thing went a bit too deep and really felt like it went through the bottom of the root into my gums.  The pain was fairly intense and my hand shot out to the arm rest of the chair and my back arched up as all my muscles tensed up and as I tried to not jump out of the chair.

He says "Oh, oh.  Ok, it's all right."  But really it wasn't because whatever he was working with came apart in my mouth, with the needle jammed into my gums and him still holding on to the tool.  So now he's trying to get it reattached or dig it out with some kind of tweezers or something.  I don't honestly know how he got it out, but it did come out after a couple quick attempts.

Now, when I said in my last post that the root canal is kind of like digging the marrow of a bone out of your tooth, I think I was only partially correct.  The other stuff that is getting dug out is all the nerves.  So while this did hurt, it wasn't the kind of hurt that you have when you have exposed nerves or a chipped tooth and air gets on it.  This is more like you have that piece of popcorn or apple that gets stuck between your teeth so far that it hurts and you can't get it out.  Except that the popcorn, or apple if you choose, has a needle attached to it and actually imbeds itself into your gums for a minute or so.

I didn't really think that this was going to be eventful enough to have another post about my dental work.  But after that little mishap, I just felt the need to share the final phase.  Next comes the crown.  That should be uneventful.  We'll see though.