Sore Teeth and Narcotic Induced Nausea

So ever since I saw our last dentist, Dr. Moody, my teeth have been killing me to some degree. So we switched dentists to Dr. Payne, who all my co-workers recommended. Despite the name, Dr. Payne has been really good. Dr. Payne had me try sensitive toothpaste to see if that did the trick for my painful teeth. After this didn't work, and the pain only got worse, I went back in and he did an evaluation of the trouble area. After an x-ray and several different tests, Dr. Payne told me that he thought I had a tooth that would need a root canal. He explained that the filling in it was pretty close to the root, which can affect the root and cause it to be painful and start to die. As that tooth felt no cold when he did a temperature test, it seemed pretty clear that the molar was no good. He made some adjustments to my bite and then told me to see if that did the trick, otherwise I would probably need a root canal.

Well, the next week I unfortunately came down with a cold. All of the congestion caused a lot of nasal pressure, which in turn made my tooth hurt like the dickens. After a night of crying due to the agonizing pain, I called the dentist and went in again. Dr. Payne explained that congestion can put a lot of pressure onto the roots (and as the problem tooth was in my upper jaw, it probably was getting pressed on a lot). So he prescribed an antibiotic to help clear up my sinuses and some Lortab for the pain. And wonderful Dr. Payne told me to call him if it still hurt a ton and he would do the root canal over the weekend. Well, almost immediately the antibiotic helped! It was wonderful. Within a day of using it I was feeling much better, cold wise and tooth wise. However, I did notice that biting down was uncomfortable for 2 particular teeth : the problem tooth and the tooth right below it. So, after a week, the dentist office called to check up on me and I told them about my bottom jaw hurting now. So I went in again to have my other tooth looked at. And guess what?! After an x-ray, Dr. Payne showed me that there was an infection under the new problem tooth cause on the x-ray it was all dark under the root. He told me the only way to fix that was a root canal. Wonderful! So the upper problem tooth didn't hurt, but now the one right below had an infection.

So yesterday I went in to have the fabulous root canal. The actual root canal wasn't bad and Dr. Payne gave me an ipod with every type of music on it to listen to. During the root canal, while drilling, he told me that a healthy tooth will have a lot of blood. Then he told me that for my tooth there wasn't a single drop. That indicated to him that this tooth has been bad for a while. He was surprised I hadn't come in sooner. Well, after an hour of killing the root (which Dr. Payne told me aren't even really necessary or helpful to the teeth) Dr. Payne told me that I was good to go. He then prescribed me more Lortab because he was concerned I would be in a lot of pain due to the fact my tooth had been so rotted.

Well, I took a Lortab with lunch to help with the soreness as the numbing wore off. All yesterday my stomach was not feeling good and I thought I was going to toss my cookies two different times. I didn't think too much of it and today when my tooth was hurting again, I took another Lortab. Well, then I got a headache and just felt gross. I spoke with one of our nurse practioners and some of the girls at work, and found out that this was pretty normal. All the girls I work with don't like Lortab and don't think it works for anything (except maybe bone aches). Well, all I can say is I don't understand why some of our patients overdose on this stuff! There goes my career as a narcotics addict!

Oh well, hopefully this root canal does the trick and my teeth stop hurting.