Hi Bryanna,

When you say vital, what do you mean by that? Looking at the X-ray he said there was evidence that the decay had reached the pulp (does that make sense?). I don't recal if there was a chemical smell or not, but I think so. When I say sealant, I don't know that this is actually what it was. I guess I mean whatever it is that they do to fill the tooth.

newseditor,

Vital means alive. If the pulp was bleeding it indicates there was still life in the tooth. Depending on how deep the decay was determines if the tooth needed a pulpotomy and restoration or other. Your dentist would be the one to discuss your options with you.

To stop the bleeding and kill the nerves that are bleeding, some dentists will use a chemical like formocresol (supposedly banned from dentistry but still being used by some) which has a strong odor. Others will use a saline solution which has no odor.

Bryanna

If the tooth was still alive, that makes me pretty upset. I don't understand why they needed to do this. I don't remember a strong odor, but I was a little out of it. All I remember is this root canal took less time to do than other's I'd had in the past, minus the time he left me to let me tooth bleeding.

Thanks again for your help! The head aches are back again today. I'm thinking about going to get another opinion.

Any ideas on what I can do to help the canker sores start healing? Is it normal to get those at the injection site?

There was this dentist in my past who did NOT wash his hands between patients. One, extemely long session with him where he was back and forth between patients I noticed, after I left his office, a stinging in the corner of my mouth. The side he was just about hanging on while in the chair for so long. I got home and the burning and tingling continued in that corner of my mouth. Shortly thereafter I got a cold sore, Herpes. It lasted quite a while. I KNOW he put the Herpes virus right on my mouth. It lasted about 5 years but couldn't prove he did it. So I had to live with it. :( :mad:

newseditor,

Regarding the upper tooth that was recently root canaled......... if decay has invaded the pulp tissue just slightly and the tooth is healthy in every other way, then sometimes a pulpotomy or partial pulpotomy can be done and a temporary medicated restoration can be placed to allow some time for the pulp to heal. If the decay was deeply into the pulp, then a pulpotomy would not be effective. At that point your choices would be to do a root canal (which is a temporary means of retaining an unhealthy tooth) or an extraction (which is a permanent solution as the unhealthy tooth would be removed).

Does it concern you to have root canaled teeth? Are you aware of the infection and health risks of retaining root canaled teeth? Not everyone is curious about this, so I am not going to offer the information to you if you prefer not to know about it. I say this because at this point I'm not sure where you stand on that. Everyone has their own preferences and some people want to become informed and others prefer not to be.

Regarding your headaches...... are they on the same side as this recently root canaled tooth? Do you have any stuffiness, tenderness, blockage, or unusual drainage pertaining to your sinus on that same side?

These questions are asked because certain things can make the healing and headaches better while other can make it worse. Are you rinsing with warm salt water or something else? Are you able to brush and floss all of your teeth to keep the amount of plaque low? Are you eating a typical diet that requires a lot of chewing or are you eating soft foods to give your jaw a rest?

Regarding the canker sores.... generally it is typical for someone who is prone to getting oral ulcers, to get them after dental work. In those people it indicates that their immune system is in a compromised state for whatever reasons and the physical and emotional trauma from the dental treatment activates a dormant virus in the nervous system to become active. In people who are not prone to oral ulcers, they may also get a canker sore or two from the friction of the dental instrument or from the dentists hand rubbing excessively or repeatedly against their gum or mouth someplace during the treatment. When a sore or ulcer develops at the site of the injection, it generally indicates a hyper sensitive reaction from the patient again due to their immune system responding unfavorably to trauma and friction.

We don't know your medical history so we don't know if you are prone to getting oral ulcers or if you have the herpes simplex virus. These ulcers can get very painful and last up to about 21 days.

Some things that help to reduce the number of lesions and lessen the severity of the outbreak:

**Take an amino acid supplement called L Lysine. Here is a link for informational purposes only:

http://www.wholehealthmd.com/ME2/dir...BEAC08191C5F44

**Eat a diet rich in Lysine.
http://nutritiondata.self.com/foods-...000000000.html

**Avoid foods high in arginine as this amino acid can aggravate and promote the formation of more ulcers during an outbreak.
http://nutritiondata.self.com/foods-...000000000.html

**Take a probiotic supplement to help restore healthy intestinal bacteria that has been killed off by the antibiotics and stress. This is a great formulation :

http://www.gardenoflife.com/Products...ated-Mood.aspx

**Drink lots of pure water throughout the day to keep hydrated and rid your body of toxins.

**Keep your teeth clean to reduce the accumulation of plaque as this sticky substance can exacerbate the soreness of the ulcers.

**Avoid eating sugar and soda. Stop smoking it you smoke as all of these things just make the immune system work harder and slow down the healing process.

If you decide to seek another opinion from new dentist, you may (or may not) consider seeing a biological or holistic dentist as they are likely to treat you as a whole person and not just your symptoms. Conventional dentistry, like conventional medicine has great diagnostic technology but the practitioners are not looking for the root cause of a persons problems. They treat symptoms with various procedures, medications and surgery. A holistic or biological dentist will try to determine the root cause of the problem and then treat the cause as favorably as possible. If you are interested in seeking a holistic or biological dentist a good site to look for one is the Internnational Academy of Oral Medicine and Toxicology.

http://iaomt.org/find-a-doctor/searc...ist-physician/

I hope you find this information helpful to you. If you have further questions or are curious to learn more, just let us know.

Bryanna

Thanks again for all your help Bryanna! As to the canker sores, I've had them all my life. All part and partial to having a weak immune system (I have selctive IgA deficiency, Celiac disease and Lupus). In terms of the root canals, I read quite a bit of material in recent weeks that makes me ill just thinking about it. That said, financially I just don't have the money nor the insurance to fix the issues, at least not at this time.

With regards to the headaches - They are on the same side as the dental procedures, but no real issues with my sinuses (I've been hospitalized with sinusitis in the past, and everything seems clear). The headaches are radiating over my eyes to the back of my eyes from my temples. The ear pain is still there.

I'm brushing twice a day, rinsing with salt water twice a day as well. Not sure if I should be doing this more or not.

Seems like the antibiotics are not working as well as they have the past couple of days, but the pain isn't quite as bad. I haven't had to take any pain killers today.

newseditor44 : I have heard holistic and complimentary therapies like Homeopathy, Reiki and Mudra Yoga will help a lot in the autoimmune issues you mention...Hope you will find a relief soon...
I also wish you had not opted for another RC...

Bryanna : I'm getting my RC removed (3 teeth) - I guess I will go around interviewing dentists in the area to see whether they will automatically mention about Periodontal ligament removal etc...without me requesting about that explicity...also do I need any bone grafting ? or can I simply cope with homeo remedies like calc carb, calc phos, calc flour and silicea? By the way should I start a new thread? (I will after my first meeting with the dentists)
you are really an angel on earth educating people about being there for them in these times of health crisis where everyone are keen to misguide others (or their knowlege is limited)
Thank you Angel.

AH2015,

Welcome from India!!
Oh my goodness ..... thank you for those kind words. That is so thoughtful of you ~'.'~

I am a true believer and personally practice complimentary therapies like those you mentioned. Fortunately they are catching on more and more here in the US!! A quick story about Reiki.... several years ago I had severely burned my throat on some hot pasta that stuck to the back of my throat. The burn was quite extensive and my throat became very inflamed and painful. My employer at that time was a Reiki master and on the third day of injury he provided a therapy on me that within a few minutes completely, permanently diminished the pain and the inflammation. I only wish I had him do it the day it happened!! Have you had Reiki performed on yourself?

From what I have learned from others who have posted here and live in India, in general the dentists in India are not so eager to be asked a lot of questions or appreciate an informed patient. Is that your opinion as well?

Believe it or not, many of the dentists who practice conventional dentistry here in the US..... are of the mindset that they are not to be questioned about anything. However, as people become more informed they tend to speak up more. Which is a good thing because that is the only way for change to occur.

Regarding the removal of your root canaled teeth ..... please do not wait for a dentist to tell you he is going to remove the ligament and diseased bone and please do not assume a dentist is automatically going to do that. You will most likely never find that dentist. Seek an oral surgeon to consult with and gently but assertively let him know that you want the teeth extracted in their entirety as well as the periodontal ligament and all visible diseased tissue and bone. Tell him your reason for wanting this is because you want to reduce the infection as much as possible and want to avoid post op infections from occurring. If the surgeon does not appreciate your request or does not take your request seriously, then move on to another surgeon. Every dentist has been taught the proper extraction protocol but not every dentist follows it as thoroughly as they should. You have every right to make that request and to be treated properly.

Regarding bone grafting .... this should only be done if the jaw bone is healthy enough to receive it. If there is any remnants of infection in the bone when the graft is placed, then the graft may not take and secondary infection can result.

Regarding the homeopathy and other complimentary therapies.... very useful and should be done. However, it is best if the surgery is complete as this will allow the therapies to work faster and be more effective for the long term.

Let your knowledge empower you to speak up for yourself. You do not have to be aggressive, just assertive and matter of fact. Pretend I'm there with you, sitting on your shoulder nudging you to make your requests clear ~'.'~

Yes, please start a new thread when you begin the process.

Bryanna

Newseditor, I hope you'll get better very soon! Regarding canker sores: I just had one after the other (first time in my life) after I've been living in a dental nightmare for months. I was told that l-lysine does really help. Did you try to put some sodium bicarbonate directly on the sores if they can be reached (or rinse with it if not) - it hurt but seemed to help. Both disappeared within a week-10 days. I'm rinsing with salt water after every meal too.

AH2015 hello, it's good to see someone else decided to get rid of all RC too. I have 2 out of three out and even though I have complications (from sinus perforation), with everything going on I still am unbelievably happy to have them out. I know this sounds silly but feels like I got something like my old self back. There is a difference in how i feel. And not only physically. I will look into this more once I'm healed and the last one is out because I'm increasingly convinced that they had an effect on my way of thinking too. Is that possible at all? And I agree that Bryanna must be an angel ☺ ❤