Root Canal Pain

What About Root Canal Pain?

How many times have you heard, or thought: “I’d rather have a root canal than a __” you fill in the blank. Since they were first attempted, root canals have gained one of the worst reputations on the planet as far as dental pain is concerned.

Believe it or not, it is much undeserved.

The first question always heard is “Is there pain with a root canal?”

For the average person with an average situation, there should be no real root canal pain. This is the majority of the time. Your dentist will numb your tooth for the procedure and you should feel very little if anything. Afterwards, there may be a day or two of some pain as would be expected from any dental procedure such as an extraction or filling. This should be easily controlled with common, non-prescription pain medication.

In fact, most patients who have experienced a root canal will tell you that it is no worse than getting a cavity filled and that, as with most things related to a visit to the dentist's office, the anticipation is much worse than the actual procedure.

Most Root Canal Pain Is Avoidable

The horror stories that include horrendous descriptions of root canal pain are usually from folks who did not seek dental attention when their tooth began to hurt in the first place. They chose to live with the pain and symptoms until infection and swelling got out of control. Once it is highly infected, a tooth can be hard to get numb.

Controlling the Infection is Important

These days, most dentists and Endodontist prescribe medications to get any existing infection under control before a root canal is even performed. While the physical fact is that you cannot have root canal treatment if you’re severely swollen to the point where you cannot open your mouth widely, an abscessed tooth, or any other infection, needs to be treated as soon as possible anyway.

Some dentists will begin treatment by draining the abscess first then scheduling the root canal treatment after the infection has subsided.

The root canal itself does not hurt, OK? You've heard of Novocain, no doubt? No real dentist or Endodontist is going to perform a root canal on you if you aren’t numb first! It is a precision procedure which lasts over a period of time. You have to be still and not move around in the dental chair. You must first be numb to accomplish that!

So Why Are We Afraid Of Root Canal Pain?

Yes! Where exactly did the bad reputation come from?

Well, many people fear the dentist to start with and associate root canal, as other dental procedures, with pain. Some will ignore the warning signs of a problem simply because they do not want to go to the dentist and hope that it is something temporary which will just go away. The toothache, however, which most times is caused by decay, gets worse. At first, it could be something as simple as a dull ache while drinking something hot or cold. Perhaps it does away for a while and is forgotten or ignored. But, one day comes that it doesn’t go away. You bite down and experience a shooting pain that seems to go on forever. Or perhaps you drink something cold which sends you through the roof.

Get It Fixed!

The key is to get the tooth fixed before it gets badly infected and swells your jaw to chipmunk proportions. See your dentist at the first sign of symptoms.

There may be a time, however, when it does sneak up on you seemingly without warning. You could have an unknown fracture in a tooth that widens all of a sudden when you chew. Ouch! You’ll know it if that happens. Once that fracture reaches down to the inside nerve of your tooth, you will not be able to ignore the torment it can cause. At that point, you will be more than happy to see your dentist or Endodontist at the first available opportunity.

In the end, the root canal is the solution to your pain, not the cause of it.

But, you already knew that, of course.

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