No Silver Lining in the Clouds for Me...

Two days ago I had my four upper right teeth revised. I now sport teeth with no silver showing, which sure is nice. The procedure took a couple of hours since there were various amalgam fillings in the four teeth, but it did go well. My dentist did not find any teeth that were decayed terribly that needed extra work, and that I was thankful for. Since then, I haven't felt very well however, but that's half-way to be expected. Some people either feel really good after a revision, or they settle into a couple of weeks of feeling really bad. I unfortunately think I got the latter.

I also am still having problems with the root canaled tooth, and I have a feeling it's causing the problems I feel in the back of my head and into my neck. The dentist shaved the upper tooth down some more when I was there again, but I don't think it did much good since I am still waking up at night with my teeth clenched and that tooth throbbing. I don't think he can do much more, because when he was taking some tooth away this last time, I started feeling some pain which has got to mean he's getting pretty close to the nerve.

One good thing that I think has come out of this last revision already is that my sense of smell is coming back. Not that I knew I lost it, but I have been able to smell more aromas these last two days more than I have in years. It's been surprising. I haven't noticed much change in taste, but it could possibly be too early yet to notice. And knowing that I still have amalgam under the four crowns could certainly give some answers to why some senses still aren't right. My vision is certainly off again, but differently than before. I'm not getting the fish-bowl wobbly effect any more...it's more or less a blurry-ing effect in a way, although it seems like I can see really well far away (with my contacts in) which seemed to be a problem before. I have had myopia since I was about thirteen, and within the last five years I was diagnosed with keratoconus (a "coning" of the cornea), although the eye doctor told me at last year's check-up she was amazed because the keratoconus had almost disappeared - which was unheard of. I haven't been back in yet this year to see if anything has changed.

I am learning from this experience to never have another root canal done. Unfortunately I'm not real sure how I'm going to get the four extracted that I already have. I am getting the feeling from my conversations with my dentist that he trusts in root canals as the answer since he hasn't done any of his own research on it, but as I've been learning from books and other sources that it does more harm than good. If you're wondering more about root canals, I'll refer you back to my "Root Canals, the Ugly" post that has a website that discusses this topic. You'll also find more information on root canals in Hal Huggins books, "Uninformed Consent" and "It's All in Your Head". You can also search "root canals" on the internet and get a lot of information there.