Root canal pain and memories

My first root canal at age 53. I have been studying psychology fulltime since age 51. My favourite is cognitive psychology. What does this have to do with my root canal experience?

I have slightly high anxiety when it comes to dentist. It stems from a scare when I was a child; when my sister had a dental appointment. And as I waited for her, all I could hear were her “screams of terror”. This affected me me for many years, such that my first dental experience to fill a tooth was when I was 14. 

To make matters worse, at age 20; unsure of what a root canal meant, I extracted a very good molar that could have been saved. This fault was of course blamed on the lack of information given by the dentist at the time. 

Now, this genuine fear surfaces each dental visit but eventually I have  faced the fear and come out alright. 

The root canal session went well the first time; then the second time which was today. Although the area was anesthetized, logically I understood the  procedure , and while it was in progress with drilling, cleaning, measuring depth, more drilling with various size mini hand held drills; I found myself distracting my thoughts to other matters like reviewing my readings mentally making notes of what I would write. 

When this session was over , my jaw felt rigid but I could close my mouth once again which had been fully opened for 2 hours. The dentist placed a resting bridge to ease the jaw and a lot of modern procedures which makes one feel as comfortable as possible. 

So, after leaving the dentist and driving back, the anesthetic effect  was starting to wear off. By the time I reached home (30 minutes or less) my entire left side of my face, was in pain. 

I took two pain killers, two muscle relaxants and a sedative which was what I needed to feel better and fall asleep.

This is the interesting finding about pain. See, during the procedure to remove the nerve (root canal); the brain has been aware of this invasion, although not felt at the time. This invasion has been recorded. The pain induced must be recorded as a sensation. Thereafter, when the anesthetic wears off , all after-effect pain  is felt. Sleep is then needed to calm the body and mind, by consolidating all the memories ; sensations and perceptions of the experience in order for healing to begin mentally. See, during my sleep, I felt the real pain of the procedure ... it was a recorded memory. Because in sleep we have a REM state; we go through what is a very active brain activity during sleep. This is the point we may dream. But, it’s actually memory consolidation. I felt it as a flitted in and out of sleep. 

The good news is after waking, all pain disappeared. I had slept for 5 hours. Giving my brain a good relaxation to have approximately 5 REM sessions, enough to relieve the actually pain itself.

So, the wonders of cognitive function in our lives is amazing. It’s said everything is in the mind, that’s not wrong. 

This story is aimed at sharing/helping people who have similar experiences . Those with deeper levels of mental issues are recommended to visit professionals. 

~lorrainenur@2018