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HELP! What to do about a stupid freakin' tooth absess?

Dreambirdie

work in progress
Messages
5,569
Location
N. California
As if it isn't enough to deal with... NOW I think I have an absessed tooth. MF hell!

I had a tooth filled on September 15th, which was giving me a huge amount of pain--it ended up being a deep cavity, and once it was filled, the pain was gone. But... I kept having (and still have) MCS type of symptoms (agitation, insomnia, nerve twitching in my fingers) for the past 6 weeks afterwards, which I thought had something to do with the dental filling material being non-cmpatible. Now I see a bump on my gum, which I hadn't noticed before, and I think I may have an absess. (I have no idea how to spell that word!) Maybe it was a bacterial reaction and not an MCS reaction after all... or maybe both... :confused::confused::confused:

My dentist wants me to come in and get an x-ray and possibly go get a root canal.... AREN"T THOSE REALLY BAD NEWS? or else he says I will have to get my tooth pulled.

I have so little energy to spare and can't even think how challenging either of these would be.

Any advice or feedback about how to proceed would be helpful. I would like to just get a pair of pliers out of the drawer and yank the stupid thing out of my mouth myself, but probably not a good idea. Right?
 

August59

Daughters High School Graduation
Messages
1,617
Location
Upstate SC, USA
Have to do it right!!

It's not the root canal so much as it is how it is performed. It appears that the "standard" process used over the years leaves the tooth, jaw bone and/or surrounding tissue very vulnerable to infection. I had a tooth that had 2 fillings, then had 2 crowns (while 1st crown was in place the remaining tooth fractured requiring a 2nd crown), had 2 root canals (my dentist did a root canal on 1 root, instead of all 3). After all this it still hurt and eventually had an apicoectomy to clean out the abscess at the bottom of the roots. All this on one tooth and all of this did not need to happen.

I had another tooth, that was crowned also, and it became painful and xray revealed infection and needed a root canal. I decided that I was going to seek a "root canal specialist" (they do exist) and it was one of the best decision that i had ever made. He also explained why he thought I had so much trouble with the other tooth.

When this specialist does a root canal he uses an electronic type microscope while drilling so that he see the fine aspects of what is going on. He also uses a real time digital low radiation type xray plus a extremely small titanium drill bit (he could take tweezers and tie it in a knot) which he said was very expensive (which was why most dentist would not buy one).

He had the whole root canal prepped in about 30 minutes and he then said that all the things he had showed me only helped him do his job faster. He then ran a small piece if plastic down the canal and pulled it out and said smell this and I almost lost it right there as the odor was terrible. His comment then was that stuff has been in you tooth and jaw for awhile causing harm to some extent.

"The device I'm going to show you now is for your short and long term benefit". It was a very tiny fiber optic laser which he put down in each canal and activated for about 10 seconds (approx.). He put another little piece of plastic back down the canals and this time it had no odor at all.

If they don't kill that bacteria with the laser then it will eventually cause more harm and oral antibiotics just will not get in there that deep, even with the different antibiotics (doxycycline and clandimycin(?). My recommendation is that if you need one then find a specialist that does it right!
 

helen41

Senior Member
Messages
567
Location
Sleepy Hollow Canada
Don't worry, root canals aren't necessarily too bad. If you can do ME/CFS, a root canal is a breeze. I've had at least a dozen, and will admit some were more sensitive than others, so stock up on soup and apple sauce just in case. It's a much better option than losing a tooth.