Thursday, February 27, 2020

Thursday, February 27, 2020

Tonight's picture was taken in February of 2003. Mattie was 10 months old and one thing we knew about Mattie right away was that he loved his bottles. He would get an almost dreamy look on his face while consuming a bottle. Both Peter and I always got a kick out of this, but in reality this was the only time (other than sleeping, which he rarely did) when Mattie wasn't moving.


Quote of the day: Love conquers all things except poverty and toothache. ~ Mae West


In October of 2019, I had my first root canal. I did not know what to expect but it is much easier than it sounds. In fact, there are many jokes about root canals, but frankly I think tooth pain is worse than having a root canal. Mind you before having a root canal, I suffered with tooth pain from March to October 2019. The reason for the lapse in time was because the thinking was my pain was from a filling, which caused my dentist to remove the old filling and replace it with a crown. But the crown only made the situation worse. While this one tooth was bothering me, two others began problematic. So last week I had a second root canal and today a third! I am hoping this is it. Today's procedure was about two hours because of extensive nature of my root system. But with modern technology, you remain numb, feel very little pain throughout the procedure, and overall it preserves the tooth. 

I can't say that I am pain free right now. As it takes a few days to recover from the assault on the tooth. I included some information below about root canals, but I am here to dispel all the myths about them.  

“Endo” is the Greek word for “inside” and “odont” is Greek for “tooth.” Endodontic treatment treats the inside of the tooth. Root canal treatment is one type of endodontic treatment.

To understand endodontic treatment, it helps to know something about the anatomy of the tooth. Inside the tooth, under the white enamel and a hard layer called the dentin, is a soft tissue called the pulp. The pulp contains blood vessels, nerves and connective tissue and creates the surrounding hard tissues of the tooth during development.

The pulp extends from the crown of the tooth to the tip of the roots where it connects to the tissues surrounding the root. The pulp is important during a tooth’s growth and development. However, once a tooth is fully mature it can survive without the pulp, because the tooth continues to be nourished by the tissues surrounding it.

Endodontic treatment is necessary when the pulp, the soft tissue inside the root canal, becomes inflamed or infected. So my tooth looked like the right hand side of the photo. 

The endodontist makes an opening in the crown of the tooth. Very small instruments are used to clean the pulp from the pulp chamber and root canals.

After space is cleaned and shaped, the endodontist fills the root canals with a rubber-like material called gutta-percha. The gutta-percha is placed with an adhesive cement to ensure complete sealing of the root canals.