I had to go to the dentist Monday to get a tooth pulled. It was my VERY last molar on the bottom. I hate dental work.......
I had a root canal done on it last year but it failed so an infection just kept coming back. I nursed it with antibiotics and not chewing hard sticky items on that side. Eventually I was going to get the recommended root canal re-treatment done and then put a crown on it. This procedure would have required me to go to a specialist (it had 3 roots rather than the normal 2) and spend WAY too much money on one tooth that is already pretty poor. I was willing to pay this and get it taken care of. Along with that tooth there were many others I needed work on, so I did that prior to getting pregnant. We originally wanted to get my teeth all done before we got pregnant but we also were not preventing.
After finding out I was pregnant my dentist still recommended me getting this fixed since infection in the teeth can cause preterm birth and other issues in pregnancy. I was willing to except for one I had to wait until my 2nd trimester and secondly the numbing stuff they can use on pregnant women didn’t numb me when I had gone in for a crown fitting. I was terrified to get this work done if I could not get numbed. He sent me on my way and we decided I would be back in when I got into my 2nd trimester.
Over Christmas break I cracked the temporary filling that was put in the old root canal and I got worried that it would get infected again and maybe worse. After speaking to my OB she suggested to get it taken care of ASAP. So, off I went back to the dentist to see what to do for the infection so I could get ready to see the specialist. My dentist happened to be too busy to see me that day so another dentist saw me. THANKFULLY he had another suggestion! He told me the tooth really had a bad prognosis and really would be pointless to do a root canal again on that tooth since it is likely to fail once again. He said we just need to extract it. Now any other dentist would have voted against this since it can shift your teeth or make chewing difficult. This dentist told me I would probably not even notice it was gone being so far back there and if I chose to get an implant later I could. However he said I most likely would opted not to and I should not have issues with that tooth being gone.
This decision made the cost of fixing my mouth change from equaling a fortune to the cost of a very nice dinner at a restaurant! I was excited about this aspect, but I was scared to DEATH of a dry socket. When I had my wisdom tooth pulled that was next to this molar I had gotten dry socket. That is the worst pain EVER!! I have a pretty high pain tolerance but that was PURE TORTURE!!! I never want to experience that again. The procedure itself is painful after the numbing wears off (he was actually able to numb with the weak stuff for pregnant women) but there are pain medications that you can take when you are pregnant! Thank God!!
I am safe to say that as of today my extraction seems to be healing up nicely and there is no dry socket. There are still a few more days that I can get dry socket- I just pray I never have to feel that pain again!
Today I got to see a new baby boy born yesterday to our friends Hannah and Buddy! Congratulations guys! He is a cutie!!
I really did hit a growth spurt the last week……….
I had a root canal done on it last year but it failed so an infection just kept coming back. I nursed it with antibiotics and not chewing hard sticky items on that side. Eventually I was going to get the recommended root canal re-treatment done and then put a crown on it. This procedure would have required me to go to a specialist (it had 3 roots rather than the normal 2) and spend WAY too much money on one tooth that is already pretty poor. I was willing to pay this and get it taken care of. Along with that tooth there were many others I needed work on, so I did that prior to getting pregnant. We originally wanted to get my teeth all done before we got pregnant but we also were not preventing.
After finding out I was pregnant my dentist still recommended me getting this fixed since infection in the teeth can cause preterm birth and other issues in pregnancy. I was willing to except for one I had to wait until my 2nd trimester and secondly the numbing stuff they can use on pregnant women didn’t numb me when I had gone in for a crown fitting. I was terrified to get this work done if I could not get numbed. He sent me on my way and we decided I would be back in when I got into my 2nd trimester.
Over Christmas break I cracked the temporary filling that was put in the old root canal and I got worried that it would get infected again and maybe worse. After speaking to my OB she suggested to get it taken care of ASAP. So, off I went back to the dentist to see what to do for the infection so I could get ready to see the specialist. My dentist happened to be too busy to see me that day so another dentist saw me. THANKFULLY he had another suggestion! He told me the tooth really had a bad prognosis and really would be pointless to do a root canal again on that tooth since it is likely to fail once again. He said we just need to extract it. Now any other dentist would have voted against this since it can shift your teeth or make chewing difficult. This dentist told me I would probably not even notice it was gone being so far back there and if I chose to get an implant later I could. However he said I most likely would opted not to and I should not have issues with that tooth being gone.
This decision made the cost of fixing my mouth change from equaling a fortune to the cost of a very nice dinner at a restaurant! I was excited about this aspect, but I was scared to DEATH of a dry socket. When I had my wisdom tooth pulled that was next to this molar I had gotten dry socket. That is the worst pain EVER!! I have a pretty high pain tolerance but that was PURE TORTURE!!! I never want to experience that again. The procedure itself is painful after the numbing wears off (he was actually able to numb with the weak stuff for pregnant women) but there are pain medications that you can take when you are pregnant! Thank God!!
I am safe to say that as of today my extraction seems to be healing up nicely and there is no dry socket. There are still a few more days that I can get dry socket- I just pray I never have to feel that pain again!
Today I got to see a new baby boy born yesterday to our friends Hannah and Buddy! Congratulations guys! He is a cutie!!
I really did hit a growth spurt the last week……….
can’t wait to start feeling my gummy bear move ......
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