I have to have a root canal on ole #19 and its rather "touch and go"

July 19, 2015 6:44 PM

Has only a 50% chance of success (internal resorption.) Is there anything I can do to help the procedure survive? If it fails its going to be a huge problem as its an anchor on a 4 tooth bridge and it will have to be extracted, etc. - causing me a bundle of money. Anything I can do to help it along....diet, vitamins, pillow adjustment, abstain from alcohol?? Thanks.
posted by Tullyogallaghan to Health & Fitness (6 answers total)

I'm not a doctor or dentist but what I do for myself is I take fish oil - it helps reduce gum infection. If my tooth was under attack I would also eat garlic and vitamin c or orange juice to keep infection down. I would also do whatever I could to stop night-time tooth grinding (I think this causes 80% of my teeth problems) (stress). I would get tested for vitamin d levels. Because *IF* you are low in D it will wreak havoc with your teeth. I just started taking calcium citrate because I am over 50 and I feel like I may be getting osteoporosis. I have noticed my teeth feel better. I don't know how old you are or how close to the chance of Osteoporosis. Wish I had taken it sooner. But there has been talk about calcium supplements being bad for your heart. So you really don't want to take any supplements unless you know you need them. Be careful. You can OD on vitamin D and also on fish oil.

Anything you do to lower inflammation in your body is going to help. Eat yogurt or take acidophilus. If fish oil and all that is not enough and you have any gum infection you can get a strong mouthwash from the dentist by prescription. But it is toxic so you want to try salt water etc. first.

I would absolutely swish salt water in my mouth - go do it now! I would do it at least 3 times a day to keep infection down. (Swim in the ocean if you can!) I swish with hydrogen peroxide also but only every other day. just once. Because I worry about my enamel. Not sure if that is founded in fact. Just works for me.

Also lower your stress level any way you can (say "no" more often!). Do self hypnosis? (I like Joseph Clough) And make getting a good night's sleep a priority.
posted by cda at 7:48 PM on July 19, 2015

There's a bunch of stuff out there now about curing cavities. There are even FB groups devoted to the subject. The main advice I see is to take fermented cod liver oil.
posted by vignettist at 8:19 PM on July 19, 2015

Hm, my answer was incomplete as you didn't specifically ask about cavities. But try looking up root canal + FCLO anyway. A bunch of stuff will come up about helping your teeth through dietary supplementation.
posted by vignettist at 8:21 PM on July 19, 2015

Fish oil will not give your structurally compromised tooth a better prognosis. IANYD.
posted by Cuspidx at 11:16 PM on July 19, 2015 [5 favorites]

Not an answer but just hope--my dentist told me my root canal had a pretty small chance of working... and ten years later, the tooth is fine. So don't despair. These things can work out.
posted by whitewall at 4:15 AM on July 20, 2015

(*IANAD)

Internal resorption is a less common thing in my (chairside) experience. None of the advice being given to you about cavities/infection/inflammation has any relevance to internal resorption. There is nothing you can really do to affect the outcome. Don't go messing around with your diet or adding supplements that you don't normally take. As whitewall says, it could be fine.
posted by overeducated_alligator at 8:58 AM on July 20, 2015 [1 favorite]