If it's Friday, it must be nerve death

[ksmith]

Just kidding, although it was touch 'n' go there for a minute.

Back from dentist, where I learned that half of all root canals are performed for reasons that have no assignable root cause**. Nerve is dying, but they can't pinpoint why. There's no gum disease. No tooth decay. Frex, sometimes the nerve beneath a crowned tooth will simply begin its journey to the Happy Chewing Place a little earlier than its brethren, even though the crown is secure and no cavity has formed in the remaining tooth.

I was apprised of these facts while dentist and I waited for the x-ray of my crowned tooth to develop. Dentist was simply warning me of Worst Case. I was pretty certain, though, that given how the year had been going so far, a root canal was in my future.

The happy news was, however, that the x-ray showed no ex-nerve tissue. Like hoosier_red, I am a jaw clencher and tooth grinder--I do wear a guard as needed--and it's possible that given the month I've had, I simply clenched too hard long enough for the little nerves to yell "STOP" in their little meepy voices. Or I could have had what my dentist referred to as a 'chewing accident', wherein something I chewed hit the crown from the wrong angle and irritated matters. That could take weeks to resolve.

It could also be that my bite is changing. I have a permanent retainer that doesn't seem to be retaining as well as it should. Dentist referred me to an orthodontist, who I'll be visiting the week after next. I am fairly certain there is a new permanent retainer in my future, because the tax refund will be showing up any day now and you know it would be wrong to do anything with that money that might be construed as Fun.

**'root cause'--that's a Quality joke. Ha. Ha.

Comments

[juliabk.livejournal.com]

I had a root canal done due to something called "reabsorbtion" which is just as SF as it sounds. My immune system woke up one day with partial amnesia, didn't recognize one of my molars and attacked with a vengeance. My only clue was when the tooth started coming apart in my mouth. My then-dentist kept saying, "And this doesn't hurt? Really? You're sure it doesn't hurt?"

He sent me to an oral surgeon who was happy as a clam to see me because he'd just finished writing a paper on this very thing. Ultimately, it happens, they don't know why it happens, but it rarely happens more than once to the same person. This was 25 years ago, or so, so they might know more now.

Or not.

My new dentist was delighted with my mouth as well. He was simply entranced with my tale of having a root canal when I had no cavities at all. Even now that I've got a broken tooth and some other repairs, he still calls people in to look at my mouth.

It's a little freaky, actually.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

I've been the Display Patient before. Very minor leg surgery. Couple of stitches. Needed to clean/dress wound myself, and used Curad bandages to cover. Learned that I am allergic to the plasticizer in Curad bandages as area around incision took on appearance of raw hamburger. Dermatologist explained issue with Curad bandages to me--he had seen it before--then brought in his nurse to take a good look at a textbook example of contact dermatitis.

[juliabk.livejournal.com]

OUCH!!!!! My ex got to be Display Patient when he was bitten by a copperhead. No one in the hospital had ever seen a snake bite before. They had to send out for an expert. I swear there must have been at least fifty people dragged through the emergency room while he was there.

Research point: they rarely actually give anti-venom. It can produce almost as harsh a response as the venom itself.