Root Canal...take 1...

I had my first root canal today. I was absolutely dreading going, but it wasn't nearly as bad as I imagined. At least, the pain wasn't. The cost, on the other hand, quite painful. Turns out that the specialist that I was referred to does a root canal, like mine (molar), over 3 visits, so I saw him today which cost $650 and I will need to go back in a month (Sept. 5th) and then another month after that, with each visit costing $675. Ouch. Poor Steve. I thought he might faint but he held up quite well. The dentist said that by the look of the tooth...the amount of inflammation and the fact that he had a hard time even finding the tooth's canals (which is weird), he thinks the tooth may have been fighting infection for a long time. Long as in, since the filing that is in there, first went in, which he thinks (and I agree), was probably about 10-15 years ago. He said that the dentist who put the filing in, even back then, placed the filing in a way that shows he was trying not to do more nerve damage. Having said that, he also thinks that living with the tooth being like that, could be a reason why I get headaches. Wouldn't it be nice if getting this tooth fixed, helped my headaches?! I had a pretty bad one after the root canal today but I think that was from all the drilling and pressure. The dentist said that I should expect it to be sore for a couple of days, just because he stirred up a lot of stuff in the tooth but after that it should start to feel much better. Better is good. Here's hoping...