does a root canal hurt like everyone says? what meds do they give you?

Question

what hapenes if you dont get a root canal and you let it slide?

Answer 1

A root canal treatment can be done painlessly in 99% of the time. Unless you are in terrible pain when you come in, the dentist has many ways to get you numb nowadays.
As for medications, after revieweing your medical history, the dentist usually prescribes a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID), like ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin...), and only if he thinks severe pain will be an issue, he might give you a narcotic with tylenol (Tylenol #3, Percocet). The studies have repeately shown that NSAID is by far better than narcotics. I almost never prescribe narcotics for root canals.

For pain afterward, according to the studies, there is only one indicator of post-op pain, if you had pain before!!! So the longer you wait, the more chances of post-op pain you get.

Majority of the time, you need a root canal treatment when bacteria have entered the pulp (nerve). If you wait, these bacteria will cause necrosis (pulp death). The pain might go away!!! But then the bacteria proliferate and progress to the end of the root and will try to enter your body. Your body will defend itself and create a battlefield (the lesion or "abcess" at the end of the root) to kill bacteria entering the bone. Now if the bacteria are stronger than your immune system, your face might sweel up with a real abcess!!! In fact, it never gets better with time.

One last thing, if your tooth develops a lesion at the end on a radiograph, the chance of success drop by 10%. Again, the longer you wait, the more chances of that lesion developing...

To reassure you, more than half my patients fall asleep in the chair while I do their root canal treatments.

Answer 2

the root canal itself didn't hurt, my jaw did after the freezing wore off because of having my mouth open so wide for soooo long, about 2 hours. They kept doing x rays to see if they got all the root and warned me about closing my mouth with all the files in the tooth. It did feel sensitive for a week afterwards, the dentist office even called 3 times checking on me. That was 15 years ago. Then 3 years ago I bit down on something and that tooth with the root canal broke off. They get very brittle after awhile. The only reason I got a root canal was that the tooth is near the front of my mouth. Otherwise I would have had it pulled. The broken tooth is still in there, an implant is waaaay too expensive, about 4 K, bridges are too expensive too and both are NOT covered by private health plan through work. I am getting it pulled ( dental surgery because not a lot of tooth left to pull on ) and then having a partial plate with 2 false teeth ( to replace a tooth pulled that I left go too long ) on it. Don't leave the tooth alone, another tooth I had pulled, a molar, was really infected and even with a week on anitbiotics, I couldn't stand having it pulled, I finally had to have gas and it still hurt badly then, only I was too giggly to do anything about it. The roots of that tooth were totally black. I was in a lot of pain during the week of antibiotics. Either bite the bullet and have root canal and hope for the best, or have it pulled. Good luck!

Answer 3

Root Canal is not that bad any more... It use to be, but they have come so far that it's no big deal.. They will give u some pain pills, but normally you will not need many of those... Just make sure you have a good Dentist.. Don't let it go, for evidently the tooth has already reached the point of root canal or having it pulled and u don't want that to happen... Get the canal... You will be fine.

Answer 4

That really depends on your tolerance of pain. I got my first root canal when I was 14 years old and it didn't bother me. If the dentist is good it shouldn't bother you none. It'll be uncomfortable when they are performing the root canal and you might feel some hits of pain here and there but it barely hurts. Mine doesn't and its been almost 10 years since I've had it done. Just make sure that when they are doing it you always keep your mouth open. I got tired of holding mine open and went to close it and they had something in my mouth that I almost broke in my mouth.

Answer 5

I always say root canal treatments (and wisdom teeth) are like teenagers. 9 out of 10 are no problem. You only hear about the bad ones.

If you need a root canal treatment and don't get it, you are in for a world of pain that you never dreamed of. It might take a wekk or a month or a year, but it WILL make you feel like your head is going to explode. It will make you feel weak in the limbs and sick to your stomach. If you're not going to get this done, get the tooth out before it kills you.

Answer 6

This Site Might Help You.

RE:
does a root canal hurt like everyone says? what meds do they give you?
what hapenes if you dont get a root canal and you let it slide?

Answer 7

My dentist is great - I didn't feel a thing through my whole root canal and it was a pretty bad one too (I had to have a crown put on). If you let it go, it means it's going to get worse, which could mean you might have to get a crown along with it - which means a lot more $$. If you know you need to get one done then get it done asap and if you feel anything tell your dentist to give you another shot.

Answer 8

I had a root canal done today. It took a long time and toward the end it really hurt. I was crying it hurt so bad. But for the first few hours its completely painless. Afterwords your going to have pain.

Answer 9

A root canal isn't always that bad, The dentist will give you sufficient pain medication

Answer 10

I had a very difficult root canal done today and it hurts like hell...but I've had about 4 others done and never felt a thing...they're just boring....they freeze you prettty solid and you shouldn't feel anything...mine just hurt cause I had extra nerves that they hadn't anticipated....let it slide???---you'll only do that once in your life!!!