Say hello to my little friend

About 18 months ago I noticed a small lump in the roof of my mouth just off to the left, I didn't think much of it and told myself I would get it checked out if it didn't disappear or got any bigger.  When it was still there after a couple of months I took my self to the doctors to get it looked at, my lovely doctor had a look and said she thought it was a cyst and that it looked harmless, but to go back if it got any bigger or started to hurt.  Fast forward to almost a year later and I went back as to be honest I couldn't take the pain any more and eating/ drinking were becoming less than enjoyable.  The lump was much bigger, at a guess about the size of a small conker and was causing pain in my ear, jaw, eye and causing my face to swell.  I pleaded for her to make it better or get rid of it.  I was told that there wasn't anything that I could take to make it go away and was given a referral to my local hospital so see a maxilliofacial consultant.

 My appointment at the hospital was weeks later, and to say I had managed to worry myself into a panic was about accurate.  As always I need to know everything, so googled what the heck maxilliofacial surgery was and was very understandably panicked, words and phrases like 'cancer of the hard palate' reconstructive surgery' and the like were not what I should have been seeing but there they were on the net freaking me out.  But I always like to know what the worst scenario is so I am prepared for everything.  I saw my consultant who examined the lump and took some xrays, he confirmed it was indeed a cyst and that it was measuring an inch by an inch across and that he would need to remove it surgically.  A great sigh of relief jumped out of me, yes me who has never had any type of surgery but I will be asleep so as long as I wake up the other end it's all good as far as I'm concerned. Then he dropped possibly the most unexpected news .........the cause of my cyst is a dead nerve in my front upper left canine tooth, and that before he can remove it I need a .........................ROOT CANAL!!!!!  This may sound minor to most of you but to me, who has pretty much avoided ever knowing what is involved in such scary sounding dental procedures due to the fear of waking up one day toothless this was petrifying.  I actually started to well up right there infront of this nice man that was promising to make the ugliness in my mouth and the unbearable pain go away, what a great big girl !  after I had 'womanned' up slightly he went on to say that the root canal needed to be done asap to eliminate any chance of infection so I could book my surgery.

 On arrival at home after first washing the smell of hospital off me I cranked up the laptop and started doing some research, one thing that was baffling me was that I had seen my dentist a few months earlier and several xrays had been taken, but she hadn't mentioned the lump at all.  And indeed no mention of needing a root canal ?  I had been shown my xrays at the hospital and as you can see below the great big dark shadow (which is my cyst) is hardly missable!  After some further investigation I found out that the cyst I have is called a Radicular or Periapical Cyst, and is caused by a tooth nerve dying and not being treated by a root canal. One thing that I couldn't understand was how the nerve had died, I haven't damaged it and it wasn't decayed ? 


 I won't go into details of my root canal treatment as it isn't pretty but I completed my treatment two weeks ago after having two teeth treated.   A trip to the dentist yesterday confirmed a possible sinus infection as my cyst seems to be moving north so I am taking two types of antibiotics to eliminate any nasties in time for my surgery.  

Fingers crossed in two weeks time my little friend will be no more and I will be pain free.........

Emma x 

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