I just learnt a sore tooth of mine is caused by my tooth root never fully closing (due to getting braces and shifting my teeth around). Now at 30 I need a root canal.

I’ve never even had a cavity before. I’m legit terrified. Teeth are the one thing that are much worse than nails on chalkboard for me.

How was your experience been? Any words of advice or words of encouragement? I could use it :(

  • PerogiBoi@lemmy.caOP
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    1 month ago

    I was told I won’t need a cap as the tooth is my front tooth. One of my big concerns is how my tooth will feel when I bite things since they extract the nerves from the tooth.

    I have an implant right next to my front tooth and that was such a traumatic experience for me when I got it as a teen. I’m afraid my tooth will feel like the fake one.

    • Catoblepas
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      1 month ago

      The front tooth is actually the easiest to do a root canal on, so it shouldn’t be bad at all. They won’t be changing your tooth much if you don’t need a cap, just cleaning out the infection and the nerve. So you shouldn’t feel any change in how it sits in your mouth or pressure against other teeth or anything like that.

      I’ve had a root canal on a front tooth and the only time I can tell that it’s any different from my other front tooth is if I accidentally bump it with something, it doesn’t hurt the same way as a tooth with a nerve does. It still hurts, just from the gums rather than the tooth if that makes sense.

      Don’t feel like you can’t tell your dentist you’ve had bad experiences before and are afraid, it is SUPER common and dealing with it head on is going to be a lot better than being unable to get it done during the appointment due to an anxiety attack. If you don’t feel it’s quite that bad for you then you can still ask for nitrous oxide to help you relax.

      • PerogiBoi@lemmy.caOP
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        1 month ago

        That’s honestly a relief for me to read 🥲 Your description makes sense to me and that’s a relief as well haha. My implant tooth feels very weird to me compared to all my other teeth.

        I’m lucky to have a very empathetic dentist. I told her I was beyond nervous but she could see it cause my hands were shakey and I kept tearing up haha. Felt kind of embarrassing but I know she’s seen worse.

        • Catoblepas
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          1 month ago

          Don’t feel embarrassed at all, it’s a totally normal fear and like you said she’s definitely seen worse. You got this 💪