Root Canal

How many people have had a root canal?  I had my first one a few weeks ago.  And it wasn’t quite the circus I was looking for.  My lower right, second to last molar had been killing me for three weeks.  I hadn’t been able to chew for two weeks.  And I’d been eating mashed potatoes and milkshakes hoping it might just fix itself for the latter.  So I finally made an appointment to go get it looked at.  I found a dentist in Houston that accepted my insurance.  Part of the reason I’d been delaying getting it evaluated was because I have this inherent fear of finding new practitioners/dentists/hair dressers/etc in new towns.  I’d been seeing my pediatrician through the age of 27 in my hometown.  And it really was at the point where I just had to find new people where I live.  Baby steps.  So I went to Castle Dental (because I thought it sounded fairytale-like and kid-friendly making me believe in my own head that anything done there would be pain-free).  Well, after full radiographs of my mouth, the dentist wanted to know how I managed to get a cavity under a filling?  I confessed my addiction to sugar Double Bubble.  He wanted to know if I was 5 and when would I like to schedule the root canal/temporary cap/crown for the small fee of $3087.00?  My dental insurance through work is less than awesome.  It was only going to cover $1,000.  “I’ll have to get back to you on that.  And may I have my radiographs please?”

So the hunt began.  The hunt for the cheapest root canal in town.  That’s probably a hunt you don’t want to go on.  Hindsight.  For the next week I must have called 60 places requesting an estimate for the procedure.  And jackpot, I found someone willing to do the whole thing for $800.00 at first.  And then the receptionist even bargained down more than that on the phone with me.  I got it down to $524.00.  Vegetables/fruit/etc. in an outdoor market are things you should bargain on.  Root canals?  Probably not.  But nonetheless I started on some pretty powerful clindamycin to knock out any infection prior to the procedure, and scheduled the consult.  I GPS’d my way to the consult the next day, all the way down to Hillcroft.  I got a little lost and couldn’t figure out where all the hordes of people were going walking across this busy 6 lane road I was driving on right in front of my car, only to realize they were going to the clinic I was headed for.  When signing in, everything written and spoken to me was in Spanish until I opened my mouth with some English.  I finally got to see the doctor after quite the wait, and she also agreed I needed the root canal.  Really?  I know I need a root canal.  I can plainly see it on the films.  Will someone just do it please?  She told me to look at my schedule and call her back with the best day to do it.  I left the clinic, checked my schedule at home, and called back to make the appointment.  And when I was put on hold, Jeremih/50 Cent “Put It Down On Me” was playing in the background.  Beethoven or Tchaikovsky “on-hold” music?  No thank you.  Down with that booty on me.  $524.00.  At this point I was starting to get a little nervous. 

The day of the surgery.  I am in the chair at 2pm.  At 6:45 pm I am standing up to get my purse to pay.  My parents and brother had called my phone 25 times (which was off), called my clinic I work at, and texted me a dozen times trying to find me as no one knew where in the heck I was for 4 hours and 45 minutes.  They feared I’d been put under general anesthesia and someone had stolen a kidney.  Truthfully, I was a little scared about all that went down that day too.  First off, 4 hours and 45 minutes.  Uncalled for.  Most root canal specialists do the procedure in an hour tops.  Secondly, the dentist asked me if I wanted to watch the procedure with a mirror.  And me being the ever medicine enthusiast that I am actually thought this would be a good idea.  At one point there was some trampoline looking contraption in my mouth, and she was lighting tools on fire before putting them in my mouth.  When my tooth looked like it was upside down on stilts, I put the mirror down.  I recommend not watching if ever asked.  Little Spanish kids kept coming in and out of the room to look over her shoulder at the train wreck.  I acutally didn't mind the cheering squad.  I needed the support.  She tried to talk me into a non-porcelain crown.  Really?  Do you have a grill in my size?  And she took/readjusted/and re-took 6 radiographs to make sure the pins were positioned just right.  I questioned her about the caudal protrusion of one of the pins into the alveolar bone.  She replied the textbook said she had a 1.5 mm length room for error.  I prefer no error, but I’m no human dentist.  I still can’t chew entirely on my temporary but I’m hoping the light at the end of the tunnel is when the permanent crown comes in.  The moral of the story:  I survived my 1^st root canal, albeit long she still got the job done, I will never chew Double Bubble again, do not watch your dentist do anything in your mouth with a mirror, and some things probably aren’t worth bargaining for.