Rant #1,565: The Root of the Problem

On Tuesday afternoon, as I was eating lunch, a felt a sharp pain in one of my upper teeth, and the discomfort, although not as bad, continued throughout the day and into the evening.

The next day, I made an emergency appointment with my regular dentist, and thus began the saga of, at least for me, the mother of all root canals.

I went to the dentist, and after trying for at least a half hour--in which time my mouth was prodded and pulled as it had never been before--he told me that he could not find the "proper" canal for my discomfort and for him to work on.

He handed me a card for an oral surgeon, told me to call that dentist, and that was that.

I made an appointment for first thing yesterday--8 a.m.--and went there with my father, just in case.

It was a good thing he came along for the ride.

I made out the necessary paperwork, and finally, I was called into the room to have my problem looked at.

I had X-rays, the dentist looked at them, decided that yes, he could do a root canal on the tooth, and away we went.

I have had root canals before. Prior to yesterday, I had had, I believe, three of them, the first when I was a teenager by my dentist in Brooklyn, so I was a couple of years older than I was in the accompanying photo when I had my first root canal.

I am certain it was a joy to behold..

But I have never had a root canal like this one that I had yesterday.

If I twisted and turned and contorted like never before with my own dentist just a day before, well, yesterday, I even twisted, turned and contorted in more positions that I knew I could possible turn into.

The problem was, as the dentist told me, that I have long roots on my tooth--I think I mentioned sometime to you that I have "black man" roots in my tooth, where the roots are longer than are generally found in white people, leading me to believe that there was some co-mingling generations ago in my family--and there was a long-ago filing deep in this tooth, probably dating from my early teen years.

The filling was thus probably about 45 years old, and was stuck in the tooth. It prevented my regular dentist from finding where my problem was, and it impeded this dentist, too, from getting to the "root" of the problem. More about that later.

Anyway, after about 45 minutes, he evidently did get to the problem, I had my root canal done, but he told me the following:

"Because of the severity and deepness of the root canal, a part of one of our instruments actually broke within the tooth. It won't greatly impact the root canal or the tooth, and it will actually act as a post once the crown gets put on your tooth."

So, I now have a piece of dental tool stuck in my tooth. I almost feel as good as when I was told during gall bladder surgery that I have a number tattooed somewhere inside me to alert future doctors as to what I had done to me.

Anyway, a temporary crown was not--repeat, was not--put on the tooth. So right now, it is exposed, I cannot eat on that side, and I have to wait until Tuesday afternoon to get a new crown put on the tooth, or at least a temporary one.

The anesthesia that I was given yesterday was unlike anything I had ever had, three pin pricks in my mouth that not only numbed the gums and my teeth, but also did a total number on me.

I knew that this was intense, but when my eyes started to tingle as he applied the needle to the upper middle region of my mouth, I knew I was a goner.

Somehow, my father and I got home, and all I wanted to do was to go to sleep. I felt horrible--the worst I felt in years, just like I was sick and had the flu or something akin to it--and I was as woozy as can be. The side that had been worked on also hurt like hell, which the dentist told me it would.

I somehow called work, told them I would not be in, and proceeded to march to my bed, sleeping for three hours.

I felt much better when I got up, finally ate something, and really felt like myself the rest of the day, especially after taking Advil.

Now, this morning, I woke up, feeling more like myself, but my mouth hurts like hell. After typing this out, I will take some more Advil.

So, this, to me at least, was the mother of all root canals. Having had three previous ones, I had never experienced much in the way that I just described to you with them, but those long roots of mine finally did me in.

Let's hope that by Tuesday, I will feel better when the crown is put in.

That will be the best Hanukkah gift I could get at this point in time.

And yes, Hanukkah begins at sunset on Sunday, so if you follow the holiday, have a great one.

Mine will be just that, tempered by the fact that my bite isn't what it normally is, and I mean that literally.

Speak to you not on Monday, but on Tuesday.

Believe it or not, I have to go to another doctor for a minor procedure on Monday morning. Nothing with nothing, but I want to rest up for it, so I will speak to you next on the morning of my crowning.

Hopefully, that crown will make me a king that day.

Wish the best for me. Speak to you then.