does a root canal hurt like everyone says? what meds do they give you?

Question:

what hapenes if you dont get a root canal and you let it slide?

Answers:
A root canal treatment can be done painlessly in 99% of the time. Unless you are in terrible pain when you come in, the dentist has many ways to get you numb nowadays.
As for medications, after revieweing your medical history, the dentist usually prescribes a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID), like ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin...), and only if he thinks severe pain will be an issue, he might give you a narcotic with tylenol (Tylenol #3, Percocet). The studies have repeately shown that NSAID is by far better than narcotics. I almost never prescribe narcotics for root canals.

For pain afterward, according to the studies, there is only one indicator of post-op pain, if you had pain before!!! So the longer you wait, the more chances of post-op pain you get.

Majority of the time, you need a root canal treatment when bacteria have entered the pulp (nerve). If you wait, these bacteria will cause necrosis (pulp death). The pain might go away!!! But then the bacteria proliferate and progress to the end of the root and will try to enter your body. Your body will defend itself and create a battlefield (the lesion or "abcess" at the end of the root) to kill bacteria entering the bone. Now if the bacteria are stronger than your immune system, your face might sweel up with a real abcess!!! In fact, it never gets better with time.

One last thing, if your tooth develops a lesion at the end on a radiograph, the chance of success drop by 10%. Again, the longer you wait, the more chances of that lesion developing...

To reassure you, more than half my patients fall asleep in the chair while I do their root canal treatments.

yea it hurts but not much during the actual surgery. it's after the drugs wear off that it hurts. If you don't get it done you will not only loose the tooth but the pain will be unbearable and your mouth will stink to high heaven.

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does a root canal hurt like everyone says? what meds do they give you?

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