Sometime in the 80', I saw a movie called "Marathon Man" starring Dustin Hoffman. In the movie, a Nazi dentist (Dr. Szell) drilled into his teeth to force him to reveal some information. He started with one tooth and then offered instant relief in the form of clove oil. And then he moved on to drill more teeth with the good doctor taking much sadistic pleasure. In the movie, Dustin Hoffman was potrayed as a runner.
Today I finally made the appointment with the dentist. At first I asked my colleagues who were their dentist . The same dentist was recommended by two of them, so I tried to arrange for an appoinment but the schedule was full for the day. The earliest slot was tomorrow at 11.30 am. Thinking of the pain (but tolerable) I will go through tonight, I went to my regular dentist to set-up an appointment at 1.00 pm.
At 1.00 pm , I showed up at her clinic at Plaza Ampang. I lay down on the reclining chair and started to described the symptons. Basically I experienced intermittent dull pain in one of the molar. At night it gets worse while the pain receedes during the daytime. There was also increased pain when I chewed food on this molar.
The dentist an examination with a probe and pronounce the verdict "The decay have reached the nerves and causing pain". I mentioned that part of the molar had been chipped off in October last year. She looked again and said "The part where it was chipped off is difficult to clean and bacteria have moved down the side and caused decay".
She pronounced the conclusion " You have two choices ; etxtract the tooth or do a root canal" . I was a bit stunned as I was expecting a less drastic option of filling. Extraction ? The last time I had my tooth removed was in primary school. Back then, I still had back-up from a second set of adult teeth. Now if I had a tooth removed , it will be gone Forever.
Then I asked her about the root canal procedure. She took a large chart and explained the procedure. The procedure was to make a top opening, remove the nerve (pulp), clean and disinfect it and cap it with a temporary filling. A second appointment would remove the temporary filling and replace it with a permanent cap - a crown.
My decision was a not brainer - lose it or keep it. I opted for the root canal. The filling option was not really viable I thought. The most recent filling on the same tooth only lasted for 2 years. The previous fillings were made when there was no pain. Meaning there was no decay in the pulp. Another filling may only be a temporary measure and maybe not solve the problem permanently.
She injected painkiller into the gums. After 5 minutes, I felt numbness in the gums and left side of my face. She started work by drilling into the tooth. A series of syringes (later I found it was files) was inserted to remove the pulp. The files were followed by disinfectant solutions. The sequence of drilling, filing and disinfectant was repeated. After completion , an X-ray photo was taken. The final stage was the temporary filling. The whole procedure took 35 minutes. I did not feel any pain throughout the procedure.
Later at the reception counter, I made the second appointment for Monday next week. I paid RM 300 woth the balance RM 200 next week. She also gave antibiotics and painkiller pills. My whole left mouth and cheek was still numb. The numbness lasted until 5.30 pm (4-3 hrs).
At night the dull pain have dissapeared. I also did some research on root canal. I think made the right decision to have the root canal. Though I still wonder if a filling have worked as the pain (decay) was not that bad. But there is no going back now.
This morning , I cannot chew on the root canal tooth - it is still tender. Hopefully it will recover. So far there is post operative pain - I did not take the painkiller pills.
A thought did came to my mind after finding out about the permnanent effect of a root canal. The pulp contains blood vessels and tissues. These supply nutrients to the teeth to keep it alive and healthy. After a root canal, the teeth essentially is dead. It will be more brittle and prone to cracks and fracture hence
the cap (crown) after a root canal. The thought that came to my mind was : Now there is something dead in me; it sort of freak me out when I think about it. The tooth will still be there but it cannot be healed/repaired through the body's natural processes. This thought still bothers me.
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