The outcome

[torquill]

I got back a few minutes ago; I've got a temporary crown in, and it seems ok. The root is grumbling a little, but no worse than it had been.

Kudos to hopeforyou, who reminded me of the existence of anesthetics without epinephrine. That's what he used, and (beyond the squickiness of applying it) I have no problem with the numb sensation at all. That's a first. It's weird, because it's just.... numb. Not screaming that my face has been torn off, just asleep, as if I'd sat on it wrong. Or something.

I hope he noted in my chart (or will remember it readily) that my mandibular nerves aren't routed normally. The first one, which he said should affect my molars, numbed everything except the teeth. He tried a secondary, peripheral nerve (which normally serves roughly the area I told him was already numb), and it numbed the teeth quite well. Somebody screwed up the "Tab A->Slot A" deal when I was being assembled, I guess.

He was very fast, too, which is I guess the benefit of having a guy in his 60's who really knows what he's doing. Only 20 minutes of the bad stuff, then on to the tedium of taking molds and making a temp. I was out in an hour and twenty minutes flat. He joked that he had taken the sedatives for me -- he certainly was unshakable, calmly punning away. Like my much-missed former dentist Dr. Wakeman, he gave the impression that a herd of elephants coming through would have evoked merely a bland "Well, that's not something you see every day."

As a sort of apology for being such a Nervous Nellie, I told him I'll trust him from here on out. I'll still ask questions (though he's very good at explaining things beforehand), but if he tells me something is or is not necessary, I'll believe him. He's convinced me that he has good reasons for what he does.

(He also told me that my old orthodontist, Dr. Chiappone, is no longer among the living. I'm certainly not going to grieve much about that one, though he wouldn't have been older than 55 or 60 now. No idea what happened. Apparently his practice was taken by Dr. Robin Williams. Seriously.)

I'm back in two weeks for the actual crown fitting. At least I scheduled this one to give me a little breathing room around taking the train home from work in the morning; I won't have to take that morning off due to panic attacks, either.

Now I just get to wait for the anesthetic to actually wear off. Non-epi wears off faster? Not that I can tell...

Comments

[hopeforyou.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'm SO glad my idea worked for you. The non-epi shots can be done for a root canal, but my warning is that you have to keep getting stuck w needles when that's the case and it's not as effective for the work you had done today.

I hope you never need a root canal.

I might want to see this guy myself. I need a crown done. Can you email me the info? Thanks!