A specialist redid the incomplete root canal today, and all seemed to go well. Some advice: if your dentist has a stereo with headphones, ask for it. Hit play, but turn the volume way down low so you can hear what the assistant and the dentist say when they think you can't hear them. Mine were talking about how bad it was to have a second root canal on a tooth while you're still in your twenties. Ha!
The dentist has the coolest device--a digital x-ray machine. It works with 1/10th the radiation of a regular x-ray, and you get instant gratification on the laptop screen (Dell, running XP, boo hiss). The resolution isn't quite as good, but you can do colour tricks and so on to get more from the pixels you do have. He said he'd been using the technology for six years, which amazed me--I didn't realize consumer PC hardware imaging technology was capable of that in 1996.
I asked if there were plans for a 3D imaging system, but he pointed out that the surrounding teeth greatly complicate this. No doubt there are people working on it, though. It can only be a matter of time before he has a projection TV and you can take a fly-through of a 3D representation of your tooth. Then I can be motion-sick as well as scared shitless of the pain!
Speaking of pain--no pain. Drugs good. Lots of local anaesthetic. I have a prescription for Vicodin (mmm, Vicodin) but the theory is that Advil should suffice. We'll see about that ...
--Nat
While we're on the subject of drugs
About a decade ago, I had surgery which, amongst other things, removed the bones from my right inner ear (which pretty much makes me deaf in that ear). I was pretty messed up from the anesthetic and I vaguely recall being wheeled out of the operating room and seeing an incredibly vision of loveliness -- standing next to my wife. I'm not sure exactly what I said to her, but my wife tells me that the lady (a nurse) was trying to reassure her that it was the effects of the anesthetic.
Later on, I was sitting in the hospital bed, still pretty loopy, when my ear began to hurt. BADLY. My wife called the nurse and she came in and explained to me that the doctor was going to give me a prescription for Tylenol with Codeine. I'm told that at this point, I burst into tears at which point my prescription was upgraded to Vicodin
Re:The Pain
gnat on 2002-12-12T23:54:15
The pain was easy the first time, too.I went to a dentist once with a TV in the roof. In all other respects he was a jerk. I'm really happy reading the "Dimmer" sign over and over, so long as I have a nice competent person probing the recesses of my gums with sharp wire.
:-) --Nat
