Root Canal Relief

I was dreading this for months. Yesterday was the day, and I was a mess. I take 1 mg. Klonopin every night and can take more as needed, which is rare. Yesterday, I took one with my morning meds. By 11am I was still squirrely and just crawling out of my skin, so I took another. My appointment was at 1pm.

As Brian and I left our apartment, I was nauseous — for me, a sign of anxiety. When we parked in front of the office building, again, I was nauseous and hoped I wouldn’t actually throw up. I masked my anxiety and terror with anger by not acknowledging the receptionist and having Brian fill out my forms except for my signatures.

By the time I was sitting in the chair, the extra Klonopin kicked in and I was feeling vewwwwy sweeeepy. The assistant explained the procedure; she was right — it was much less worse than getting a crown, of which I’ve gotten 2 in the last couple of months. The endodontist only drills in the beginning: a hole through which she used some other tool to clean out the nerves. And that was it! It didn’t hurt AT ALL.

I think if they changed the name of the procedure to something other than the scary-sounding “root canal,” people wouldn’t be so scared. I mean, going to the dentist, cool as my dentist is, is bad enough, right? Well, it’s one less thing over with. Now all I have to do is see my dentist so she can replace the temporary filling the endodontist used with a permanent one. And hopefully, that’ll be it! I’m never avoiding a dentist for 15 years. Ever. Again.