Root Canal

My dad died a few months ago at the age of 92 with all of his teeth and few fillings. His teeth, apparently, were made of diamond.

I always benignly assumed that my teeth'd be like his. But, sadly, they are not.

I had an abscessed tooth a few years ago which had to be root canaled. I'd heard horror stories about root canals and I was more than a little anxious about it.

It was not pleasant but nothing close to what I feared.

Last weekend tooth #9, the top left incisor, became very painful. I couldn't get to my dentist until Tuesday morning. After a very painful exam, unnecessarily painful in my opinion, she diagnosed an abscess and, for cosmetic reasons, suggested a root canal...rather than extraction...to be performed only two days later, only two days after I began taking amoxicillin.

So, that's what I agreed to.

The amoxicillin helped but the tooth and surrounding gums were still sensitive.

Actually, the root canal wasn't so bad but the gums were, and still are, painful.

I'm supposed to continue to take the antibiotic until all of the capsules are gone. That's another week. We'll see how that goes.

Thankfully, while my mouth's still very tender, I can't say that it's painful.