im really worried- last year I had my front tooh smashed up because I got it in the face with a badminton raquet. It chipped of almost half of my tooth but I got it repaired. However, after a year it is still incredibly sensitive (hurts when I drink cold/hot drinks etc. ) and it sometimes hurts after I've been playing my clarinet for a while.
So the dentist said i've got to have a root canal because thenerve might be dying. Its next friday and my clarinet exam is 2 weks later!

Does anyone have any experience of root canals and clarinet playing??
Does it affect it too much?

any thoughts would be appreciated....

I'm not a clarinet player but I wanted to say that root canal treatment is not as bad as it sounds - I had a spate of these back in the 90s - as far as I remember they were not a problem after treatment - wish you luck !

Dental student here!

The trauma from the accident has probably caused the nerve tissue to deteriorate causing you the pain and sensitivity. Root canal treatment will remove everything from the root canal, and the bacteria will be removed with a disinfectant, then the canal filled.
It might be a bit tender on the first day, but hopefully the pain and sensitivity will dissapear due to the treatment.

Is there any way you can postpone the treatment until after your exam?

The first time, I had an allergic reaction to whatever they put in the root canal. It was an incredibly painful experience and took about a week to recover from. I'm not sure how common this is. When I had to have another tooth done about ten years later the dentist said she would do things differently. I was very reluctant to let her do it but in the end I gave in and nothing dramatic happened.

Any dentists around to give more helpful advice?

EDIT: Have just posted this at the same time as SAGS

Hi

Oboist here who's just had two root canals done and is still managing to play the oboe perfectly well, although I have to say mine were on molars not front teeth (which is, I assume, where yours has to be done?).

The process isn't entirely pleasant (what is at the dentist ?) but it's nothing to get worried about. I find that things are a bit tender for 24-48 hours afterwards but then it all quietens down and you'd not know anything had been done. Local anesthetic will almost certainly be used too which will wear off quickly.

I'm sure you'll be just fine for your exam therefore but do make sure your dentist knows you play the clarinet (I assume he/she already does) and about the exam. A root canal can sometimes need more than one appointment to sort and you'll need that to be planned around the exam. However, kerioboe's view is reasonable. If the exam's only too weeks away, can you postpone the dentist until after the exam is over?

Best of luck with dentist and exam!!

Oboist

Me, too. Not a clarinet player but had the same operations and the nerves were in the gum so now I'm as good as new as if nothing ever happened. In both operations, the pain disappeared after the first day.

not sure how relevant this might be, but I am due a root canal job at the end of the month.

This is on one of my back teeth, but I guess the work on a front tooth is fairly similar (dentists posting can answer that!) and from what I remember of previous ones they were not a problem maybe after the first day of 'recovery'. In fact I find the biggest problem is my jaw recovering from an anaesthetic injection!

My dentist does root canals in two 'sittings' - the first time to prepare/clean out etc and then he allows about a fortnight for it all to settle down and completes the treatment in a second 'sitting'.

Hope it all goes well.

The proccedure is the same, although the molars at the back of the mouth can have around 4 root canals, making it very difficult and time consuming! The incisor at the front is much easier to acess and only has the one root canal.

Not quite sure why he does it in 2 sittings....probably confirms at the 2nd sitting that all the bacteria has been removed and that there is no reinfection once the canal is filled.

Thank you.
I think that probably is why it takes two appointments.

ooooh! Sounds painful!

thats what everyone has said when I told them. its making me a bit scared..........

I'm sure there is nothing to worry about! So don't worry yer self quine!

No don't worry - it shouldn't be painful. Maybe uncomfortable, but not awful...

Dont worry it wont be painful! The local anaesthetic will numb all pain away and once the root canal is cleared using small files which are like mini pipe cleaners, there is no nerve left to induce any pain signals to the brain!

He's only pulling your leg! Naughty Malone *virtual spanks* Seriously, piano gurl, with sufficient anaesthetic, it shouldn't be painful at all. I have a phobia of the needle as they have made me faint in a hospital in the past so I wanted as little of the anaesthetic as possible in the hope that the needle prick would go by ever so quickly. So in my two operations there was a bit of pain but it was very quickly gone.

sags_3 is quite right. I had root canal work on a pre-molar a couple of years ago. The pain of the procedure was limited to the slight scratch of the local anasthetic, and a slight feeling of bruising in my mouth after the anasthetic had worn off. I am one of the worlds worst patients when it comes to dentists but I found it no more traumatic than a regular filling. Any discomfort felt during the procedure was mild compared to the aching before it was done.

I was back playing my clarinet within a couple of days......work prevented me from playing earlier than that. As you are suffering some discomfort now it is likely to help with your exam to have had it dealt with.....one less thing to worry about.

Good luck

I have a false tooth in front and a crown and still manage tp play ok. I was under the impression that you can't play with a flase toothe and paid £1,500 for an implant which didn't take. I lost my money. I looked on the net for information about different styles of playing and sent an email to an American clarinettist's website. I had a personal reply from him which included information about root canal treatment. This was about 4 yrs ago. I recently put in a search something like clarinet playing with a false tooth and my original letter with his reply came up. If I Knew how to send you the link to it I would!
Carl

thanks carl, i've been told that it shouldnt be to much of a problem by my dentist- and my clarinet teacher reckons my playing will improve once its been done, as i'mnot biting enough for the high notes anymore and over compensating by being to tight on my bottom lip as its too painful to play normally.

im weirdly looking foward to it being done now - I was up all night last night with toothache last night and it hurts to play my clari for too long!

Thats quite unlcuky Carl, you must have been quite unhappy! Obviously not all treatment is 100% successful and in the case of an implant the bone must have already deteriorated away too much in order for the implant to hold.

Yes apparently thats what it was. It was not nice having it done, I had a membrane stitched inside and it kept coming out through the stitches. They took some bone and grafted it too but that didn't take either. In the end I decided I'd rather just have a false tooth, even if it meant I had to give up the clarinet which I did for about 5 yrs. I took it up again last year, got an excellent teacher who just recommended a hard mouth patch to put on the mouthpiece to stop the tooth from slipping. I'm hoping to do a diploma this year- just to prove it can be done!

did I see a thread saying how you got on pianogurl?
If I missed I'm sorry... how is it for playing now?

yes you did but dont worry!

the tooth isnt painful at all now, it was for a few days but its settled down. The only problem is that im now quite squeaky on the clarinet, but my teacher said that it would go away in time and I should just ignore them for now. They're getting less frequent already so thats great.

and I can drink hot drinks without being in agony!!!

that all sounds great.
Not as bad as you had feared - and it should now just get better and better! good for you

my first appointment for root canal filling is on Monday in the morning! Hmmmm shouldn't be bad, he's a great dentist!