Lordy, Lordy, I done had me a root canal.

Those of a sensitve nature might want to look away now...

Yesterday the tooth that had been worked on last week decided it really did want to get my attention. A small sip of water was all it took and - KAPOW!.

I practically begged the dentist for some painkillers, thinking that surely it could wait the 10 days that I will be in the UK....but no. By 5.30 last night I was up the wall and ended up with a 7.30pm appointment - the timing a combination of:

1. Wanting to be able to get to Scotland to see my son

2. The dentist telling me that the pain might be intolerable overnight.

The injections were fine, and to be honest I think they were even less painful than last time - or maybe it was just that in comparison to the pain in the tooth they were nothin. Anyway, everything was going smoothly, he drilled into the pulp chamber (that makes me want to vomit just thinking about it) with no problems. Then he checked the exposed nerve with a VERY SHARP POINTY THING. How I was every scraped off the ceiling I will never know!

By this time, Mr Dentist was having to calculate just how much local anesthtetic he could give me without there being an overdose. Number Guy sat there, holding my hand, trying not to look green.

Of course, because the nerve was exposed there were only 2 options - tooth removal or proceed. And proceed we did. A combination of not quite the maximum dose of local, plus putting some into the nerve itself (!!) meant it all got done in the end. The end took 2 and a half hours to come. At various points during the procedure I was shaking so much that the instruments were rattling.

In one of the canals the nerve was dead, the other two were very inflammed. AT the moment I have a temporary dressing holding some antibiotic/steroid combo in place, plus a prescription for antibiotics since there was still a little bleeding in one of the canals which might cause a problem.

So after all of this, what do I think of my new dentist? Well, I still think he is wonderful. The difficulties were caused by my nerve endings (I'm such a sensible soul) and I would have had the same problem whoever had treated it. However, I don't think I could have let any other dentist do the procedure - he was so kind, so patient. But let's hope I don't need another one done any time soon...