Root of All Evil

Okay so the title is exaggerating, but today I had my first ever root canal. And it wasn't as terrible as I had imagined it might be.

I guess I should've taken better care of my teeth so as to not have to even worry about getting a root canal. To not even get such a large cavity that effectively breaks my tooth apart (or something like that as the dentist said). But if you were to look at everything, in the grand scheme of things, I took pretty good care of my teeth.

There has been some discomfort on my left side of my jaw but that's most likely because of my wisdom tooth coming in. Other than that, after 51 months (so 4 years and 3 months), I had one major cavity that built up to needing this root canal today. Let that sink in for a moment. It's been over 4 years since I've been to the dentist and I've not had any major complications until now. That's pretty good if you think about it.

Also on the bright side, we managed to catch this deficiency early on. It's apparently early enough that we were able to clean out my tooth and start getting it all fixed up before the bacteria created an abscess in my mouth, which would have been really bad. So while it's bad that I have this cavity, it's not the absolute worst.

Getting a root canal isn't all too bad thanks to today's modern medicine and local anesthetics. I did feel some discomfort as the dentist was moving in the roots, cleaning it out with essentially a file. That felt weird, but it wasn't really painful. It was making me cringe a bit because I just didn't want that thing in my mouth (I mean who does), but if it meant saving me a whole big deal later down the road, I suppose this is fine. I currently have some medicine or antibiotics put into my tooth and then temporary sealed off so as to really make sure to kill any bacteria that might be hiding in there. Then in a week, I'm supposed to go back and get the temporary seal removed and then get it  permanently sealed.

While I was there, since it's been over 4 years, I also got my teeth cleaned. I heard the usual "you need to floss" but it was different this time. It was "considering you haven't been to a dental cleaning in over 4 years, your teeth are actually in pretty good condition". They recommend I floss at least twice per week given that apparently my teeth alignment is pretty good. So I suppose now that I'm older and trying to be more responsible, I'll just floss regularly. I don't want another root canal because of how weird it feels, and I don't know if flossing will directly affect any of that, but if it can at least help or even at the very least makes my teeth healthier and cleaner, then it sounds like a good plan to me.

All in all, I suppose I am relatively happy with going to the dentist. I won't lie, when I heard I needed a root canal, my heart sunk at the news, but after going through it, it's not terrible. Definitely not something you want to experience if you don't have to, but if you do need one, let me be the first to tell you that it's not bad. Just stay calm and try to keep your mind on other things and next thing you know, it will all be over.