What is a root canal like?

I'm not going to lie to you, its long. Its expensive. Its uncomfortable. However, it shouldn't be painful at all.

What they do is drill a hole into your tooth, pull out the pulp and then clean out all the root canals to get out the nerves and stuff. Then they fill the tooth with a filling material and put a crown on it (depending on where it is). My dentist said if you're having a molar or other chewing tooth root canaled, then you need a crown.

My root canal that I just had done about a week ago was much better than I thought. I'm the biggest wimp ever when it comes to pain and the dentist, and I got so nervous before it that I almost made myself sick. I went in, they numbed me up good. The needle pinched a little, but that depends on who gives it to you, I've had it before where I didn't even know they had stuck it in. The actual procedure took forever, about 2 hours. That was the worst part because it was boring and uncomfortable having someone working in there for that long. No pain at all, just weird feelings. You can feel them scraping the inside of the canals to get the nerves out and then you can feel the drill in there to shape them. They stick these long rods (im assuming it was the filling) into each root to fill the canal. I had a molar done, so there were 4. That was the only spot of pain during the whole procedure. My dentist said "you might feel this a little when I stick it into one of the canals" and I felt a slight pinch for about 1 second. Not bad. Then I got my crown on, and all done. I actually thought it was better than getting a filling.

So don't worry at all about the actual procedure, you'll be fine! Its afterward that's no fun! It will be really sore and might still be sore to chew on it for a week or 2! And it costs like $1,000!!!

I've had a few root canals done in my day; and they're not as bad as they seem. The worst part is numbing the area around the tooth.

Then having to hold you're mouth open while they do x-rays sucks too. : (

They replace the roots with a rod (you cannot feel), and fill the hole back up or crown the tooth (which will probably be done on a latter appointment).

After wards make sure to ask for some moderate pain medication because your jaw and mouth will be a little sore once the Novocain wears off.

Good Luck!

your tooth basically died... or is in the final stages of its sad life... and to prevent it from infecting others they remove the root(where all the nerves are) which leaves a little canal (hence the name ROOT CANAL) and they fill it... with some strange white substnce...and they will usually put a crown on it... or a porcelein cover... good luck hope it goes well:)

i have never had to have one, but my friend says it isn't good.