I have lousy teeth.  I have always had lousy teeth, and hence, a great fear of dentists.

My mouth is full of crowns and bridgework.

I thought once your teeth were covered up with a crown/bridge, you didn’t have to worry about them anymore.  Except for maybe a cavity at the edge.

Wrong.

I had to get a root canal today.

Actually, I got 3 roots canal-ed.

My other, more recent, root canals have been handled by my regular dentist.

This is how I like it.  I have an understanding with my dentist.  He doesn’t hurt me, and I don’t hurt him.

Anyhow, my dentist wouldn’t do this particular root canal because it is the very end molar on the bottom.  (Jeez, you bite a guy one time, and they never forget.)  Also, it’s the anchor for a bridge.

So off I go to see the endodontist.

Nice guy.  Too bad I have to hate him because he’s a dentist.

You see, not only do I have lousy teeth, the roots of my teeth are very deep and bendy.  Not the optimum for root canals.

The endodontist does an evaluation appointment, and schedules one hour for the root canal; assuring me and his assistant that it won’t take that long.

Today was the day.

One and a half hours later ….

But it’s done.  He had to stop repeatedly for x-rays, trying to figure out how deep the roots went, where they went, and how many canals he had to deal with (two were so close, they looked like one on the x-ray).

He also was going to prescribe pain pills, which I eschewed.

This is not my first root canal rodeo.

The area around the tooth hurts.  That would be because a guy dug at it with pointy bits and ground holes in it for an hour and a half, plus he stabbed me with a needle full of Novocain – a lot (because he also understood my “don’t hurt me” rule), and those needle holes hurt too.

But none of it lives up to pain pill pain.

So I guess I’ll live to smile another day.

If I feel like smiling, that is.