Mrs Rooty Canalus

Over the past 20 months, Mrs Rooty Canalus (my upper right molar) and the dentist have established a long running affair. An affair which on several occasions saved her life, not to mention,  her place in my mouth.

In June 2008, Mrs Rooty Canalus began to feel a bit poorly. She had some decay tracking away under, what was an already very large filling. She was treated to some antibiotic and sedative treatment under a temporary filling and the term root canal was bandied about. Rooty seemed to recover and was treated to a permanent filling 4 weeks later. Two weeks later, Rooty relapsed and required some more antibiotics and sedatives. Permanent filling removed and replaced with a temporary.

Unfortunately, the pain Rooty was in caused me to jaw clench more than usual, and Rooty’s friend, Mr Fissure Pulpitis (see here if you want to know about that), my lower right molar got fractured! The pain from poor Mr Pulpitis can only be described as though the bones were trying to explode my teeth right out of the gums.

Mr Pulpitis recovered fairly quickly. Mrs Canalus did not. In fact Mrs Canalus was visiting the dentist every 2-4 weeks until February 2009. More antibiotic/sedative-temp filling in-temp filling out -permanent filling in-permanent filling out –more antibiotic/sedative… you get the drift.

Three days before my 2009 birthday party, my face swelled up and I was in agony. Mrs Rooty Canalus died, or rather her roots died! After a couple of days on antibiotics she had her roots removed so that a) the pain went away, and more importantly b) that I was off antibiotics and could swill champagne at my party!

Mrs Rooty Canalus has more or less been pain-free for the past 12 months since her innards were ripped out. Though her and the dentist continued their monthly dates (sometimes even twice a month). She kept losing her filling, exposing her bare roots to germs, over and over again. Leaving me begging the dentist to please just pull her out!

He wouldn’t *sigh*

By about October, he decided I had a dodgy bite. This along with my tired/stressed teeth clenching habit was causing the fillings to break. So after some work on my bite, thankfully without splints. Rooty began to improve.

Rooty has now had her innards filled and is sporting a semi-permanent filling. Since I cannot be trusted not to teeth clench, I cannot be trusted with a permanent filling at this point! A crown is now being discussed as the best option for Rooty!

So I’m back to the dentist in a couple of weeks, for a clean and scale, and another filling… then I’m hoping I don’t have to go back for a very long time. Well at least 6 months anyways.