Are root canals as painful as their reputation suggests?
Even though root canals have been great fodder for late night comedians and for party stories, most root canals involve little or no discomfort during the procedure and maybe some temporary soreness afterwards. This soreness can usually be controlled with ibuprofen or acetaminophen or a mild prescription pain medication. The root canals that have fed the popular stories stem from cases where someone will wake up at 2:00 in the morning, swollen out past their ear, and when they come in to have it treated, it can be very difficult to get numb. That person will come away from that telling everyone how bad their root canal experience was, when, in reality, it was the circumstances surrounding the procedure, not the root canal itself.
Even though root canals have been great fodder for late night comedians and for party stories, most root canals involve little or no discomfort during the procedure and maybe some temporary soreness afterwards. This soreness can usually be controlled with ibuprofen or acetaminophen or a mild prescription pain medication. The root canals that have fed the popular stories stem from cases where someone will wake up at 2:00 in the morning, swollen out past their ear, and when they come in to have it treated, it can be very difficult to get numb. That person will come away from that telling everyone how bad their root canal experience was, when, in reality, it was the circumstances surrounding the procedure, not the root canal itself.
