That sounds similar to what I went through with recovering from having my wisdom teeth removed, so: 1) it should pass in a few days at least, and 2) I'd go with soft foods till it's done healing. Stuff you don't need to chew much. Also, if you can't get your mouth open enough to brush comfortably, try rinsing with mouthwash or salt water; it'll hurt, if there's actually an open wound in there (I...am not actually sure wtf is involved in a root canal), but it's better than the alternative.
ah, thanks! i'll keep that in mind. (no open wound -- they did a temporary filling, and then soon i'll be getting a permanent filling plus a crown.)
Also a temperature change should help with the jaw... treat it like a strained muscle, because that's probably what happened.
follow-up: range of motion of my jaw improved a lot the day after the root canal, and was back to normal like 2-3 days after. then 2 days ago (wednesday) i had another procedure, which was filling + temporary crown. then in 3 weeks i get the permanent crown, which is gonna be porcelain, i think. overall: less initial pain in wednesday’s procedure than in the root canal, which make sense. (for both there was no pain after anaesthetic had fully kicked in.) however it seemed like wednesday’s procedure involved more unpleasant screechy noises. also lots of v cold water being sprayed into my mouth which was mostly OK but sometimes there was a Lot and it was unpleasant/resulted in gagging two or three times. (i have a fairly sensitive gag reflex.) also i have no memory of what music was playing during the root canal, if any (a different dentist’s office handled the root canal than My Dentist Office) but on wednesday i heard Teardrops On My Guitar, A Thousand Miles (of “making my way downtown” fame) and Love Song (as in, “not gonna write you a...”). so that was a weird atmosphere. anyways long story short i basically get to avoid chewing with one half of my mouth until i get the permanent crown. but i’ve been doing that since the root canal so whatever. used to it. however at the end of my temporary crown procedure they gave me a sheet on what to do and not do, etc.... including INSTRUCTIONS ON HOW TO CEMENT THE CROWN BACK IN IF IT COMES OUT (with two small packets of cement) and i was (and am) just like PLEASE GOD NO about the only thing worse than the idea of the temporary crown coming out, is me having to put it back in and fucking it up. so that’s def gonna be up there on the Anxiety Meter for the next 3 weeks.
follow-up: the temporary crown has been just fine. hasn’t come out once in the 1.5 months i’ve had it, which to me makes it absolutely awesome. unfortunately i can’t get my permanent crown yet because my erupting wisdom tooth is right behind the tooth that needs to be crown and it’s just fucking up the crown alignment or w/e. so after 2 appointments in which they unsuccessfully tried to adjust the crown and fit it in there, they’ve called it off til after i get my wisdom teeth out. which will be january 2nd, so as long as the temporary continues to do good, i guess i don’t care. i’m used to only eating with half my now mouth anyways.
this is late (and also not a woe, but a good thing!) but i've always had serious anxiety about going to the dentist, because brushing my teeth was always horrible - my teeth are super sensitive, and i wasn't allowed to have that sensitive teeth toothpaste, and whenever i brushed my teeth, my gums would bleed horribly, so i'd go days and sometimes weeks without, which only made it worse. my last appointment with my dentist, i finally talked to her about it and she was like "... that's not normal," did a more thorough look at my gums and went "you .. have necrotizing ulcerative gingevitis." she put me on an antibiotic mouthwash. it's about a year later, and i have a follow up appointment in the next week, and was just thinking about, because! i have sensitive teeth toothpaste, and my gums don't bleed when i brush my teeth anymore, and i manage to brush my teeth at least every other day, usually once a day! it's the first time i'm not worried about going to a dentist appointment, because since getting the gingivitis treated, i've actually been good about dental hygiene.
Which tooth and does it hurt right now? Molars when they were alive... I'll tell you about that later except... go ahead and fill a cotton sock with rice to make a microwaveable hot-pad. Try a little under a minute and hold it in your hands to make sure it's a good temp before putting it on your face. The ones in front, I had ignored them until the nerves died, so the only part that hurt was when he hit the bottom. (Top? They were upper teeth.) I'm going to miss that dentist because... getting me into a mental state where I could let the tools in my mouth without numbing was an amazing skill.
wisdom teeth (and 4 baby teeth) out tomorrow. after that i will finally stop having too many teeth in my mouth. instead i will have the correct number.
Winnertnessed. If you want/need any aftercare tips and advice, go ahead and ask! (Although after glancing back over the thread, I'm not sure if you need it. But the offer stands.)
wisdom teeth procedure itself was fine, i was very unconscious. not much pain/discomfort so far (day 1), but biting down on gauze so the bleeding will slow/blood will clot is a bit tedious. some sites seem to recommend no rinses or anything until 24 hrs after surgery, but i think my dad said the dentist said to do a gentle rinse (with the prescribed rinse) tonight? i’ll have to ask him if he was sure the dentist said that.
Okay, so - for the first few days after the surgery, you're going to want soft foods that don't require chewing. Maybe a week or so. You're going to want to wait on brushing until about a week or so out, when you can chew comfortably. A gentle rinse might be okay; the reason why sites would recommend not rinsing at all until 24 hours after surgery would be because that way, the site's had time to finish clotting and you won't dislodge half-formed clots. If you got prescribed any antibiotics, I'd wait until you can swallow the pills whole to start taking them; trying to take crushed-up antibiotics is miserable and doesn't work well, because they taste awful even if you're mixing them into something that tastes good.
Also, just remembered: make sure you've got a towel on your pillowcase when you lay down to sleep, because the bleeding can take a while to stop. I was drooling blood for most of a day or two, afterwards. (Also, try not to swallow the blood, it'll upset your stomach.)
@turtleDove we have stocked up on soft foods! & gotcha about the rinse — i figure i’ll wait til tomorrow morning to start with the gentle rinse, just in case. i got 8 teeth removed and i really really want those clots to stay where they are! haha, i was able to swallow pills whole (with water) like an hour after i got home, so that’s not an issue (and yeah, i got prescribed painkillers and antibiotics) thank you very much about the towel on pillow, i hadn’t seen that suggested before!
It's something my mom thought of at the time, so that I wouldn't get bloody drool on the pillowcase. (And even then, I think we didn't put it in place until the next day because we didn't realize that I'd still be drooling blood by the time I went to sleep.)
a filling, one of the many in my mouth that make up a majority of my teeth it feels like since the bottoms just kinda. disappeared.. has fucked itself. i realized it was kinda borked a while ago but so much shit was happening i ignored it. and then the entire side came off. well, i was just eating a can of refried beans and suddenly there was Hard Stuff in my mouth and it took a second to realize the rest of the filling came out. so now like 70% of my tooth is just Out There. up side: i see dentist on the 17th already. down side: .w. u g h. Novocaine.
So, I am having a teeth issue. Or actually, a wide number of teeth issues. Starting with the fact that due to medical neglect when I was underage, CPTSD and like... a bunch of other factors I haven't been to the dentist in about 20 years. Fortunately, I live in a country with decent healthcare but I don't have an extra dental plan that would cover anything that isn't strictly medically necessary. I'd saved up a bit of extra money so I'd feel okay going... but figured with the current pandemic I'd wait until the worst of it was over because I'm not in acute pain. Except all the teeth that were messed up so far were molars and today a front-facing bit of the tooth next to my canine on the upper right (not the front tooth, the other side) just... broke off? Doesn't hurt and this tooth hadn't been messed up before afaik so it's weird... but anyway I told myself I'd go to the dentist before anything visible broke and now I didn't do that and I can't stop beating myself up over it. And I'm afraid to tell any of the people I can rely on to help me set up an appointment (and help pay, if needed) because they don't know the state my teeth are in. Teeth suck. I wish I had enough money to just get rid of them and get dentures, tbh. Also uuuuh I'm not sure if any of this needs a trigger warning so if it does please, please let me know, I'd hate to make anyone uncomfortable.
It sounds like the tooth might have chipped? Which happens to a lot of people, honestly. If you can, try not to beat yourself up over it? You made a completely reasonable call to put off going in until the pandemic is over. The fact that your tooth has chipped does not mean it is now an unreasonable decision to wait out the pandemic.
