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> They had decay underneath fillings because the original treatment had essentially only gone as deep as the patient could stand.

In the middle of a root-canal my anesthetic completely wore off. I was able to feel the nerve root in my tooth being twisted up into a metal file and snapped out, along with all the canal filing and packing that happens afterwards. White-hot all-encompassing pain. There's no way any of those patients got a proper job done.




Why not ask for more anesthetic? When a friend went to a dentist for a procedure, she repeatedly asked for more anesthetic until she couldn't feel the pain. I think it took two or three additional injections after the first one before that happened. (It's hard for anesthetics to make their way into the jaw bone, I believe.)


I’ve had a root canal where the anesthesia didn’t wear off but simply wasn’t complete. It was still the most painful thing I’ve experienced. If I needed a root canal without anesthesia I’d just ask for an extraction. No way I’d even attempt a root canal without anesthesia.


Nerves were killed by arsenic. Still very painful, yet not a (fully) live nerve fortunately.


Thanks for the nightmares.




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