Root Canal and Smoking

sidekick · Post by **sidekick** » 08 Dec 2009 09:23

So I just had a root canal yesterday, and I'm in a fair amount of pain. I have a prescription for Hydrocodone, but I really don't like taking pills. My normal way of pain relief is in smokable form, and I wanted to know if anyone has had any problems with smoking after a root canal. Here are some things that I know about my situation:

1) I have a temporary filling in the tooth, cement I'm guessing by the feel of the tooth and the container I saw at the dentist's office

2) When I asked the dental assistant about smoking, she said "Well, you shouldn't smoke, (as a general guideline) but it could increase your risk for root canal treatment" I took that as it might be detrimental to my helping process.

3) I looked up a bunch of info online about it and I couldn't find anything that supported my thought of it being terrible after root canal treatment, outside of the normal health risks associated with smoking ganga. I did find that smoking tobacco increased your risk of needing a root canal, but nothing hazardous after the first 24hrs.

So, I guess that I just wanted to hear some reassuring words from my fellow footbag friends as to whether or not they have had bad experiences with smoking and root canal treatment.

Iron Clad Ben · Post by **Iron Clad Ben** » 08 Dec 2009 15:00

IME you're fine with the pills. I took them after mine and it was no problem. I can't speak to the option you want to pursue but for me, the pills worked fine.

Johnny · Post by **Johnny** » 08 Dec 2009 15:26

The problem with smoking is that it will cause outward pressure on the wound (esentially sucking the blood clot loose) and can cause it to break open. Sometimes air pockets will form under the area and this is probably going to cause you more pain than what you're feeling now. Also, just for cleanliness sake you probably don't want smoke travelling over open skin...

What you can do - completely cover the area with gauze and bite down (not too hard or, again you're just messing the blood clot up). Essentially you're just neutralizing the suction caused by taking a hit. You'll be stopping the smoke from touching the open skin too so it's killing two birds!

Try smoking in ways that you don't have to really have to take a hard hit. (if that even makes sense). If you're hitting a pipe or a joint then don't hit too hard. However ---if you do buckets then all the suction is done without you're mouth and you're really just inhaling passively.... In which case you can just cover the open area with gauze to avoid infection...

This, of course, is just my logic. Good luck!

Johnny · Post by **Johnny** » 08 Dec 2009 15:28

ah! no edit button. Ignore my apparent spelling and grammatical errors!

Jeremy · Post by **Jeremy** » 08 Dec 2009 15:53

I don't smoke or have had root canal, but I did a quick search and came up with this;

http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve ... 040400438X

Basically they found that after 30 months from treatment the state of a person's root canal treatment could be largely predicted based on a number of immune system impacting factors, which included smoking. I've only read the abstract and it's unclear what impact smoking specifically had, but it's worth keeping in mind.

crazylegs32 · Post by **crazylegs32** » 11 Dec 2009 21:01

The basics from what I know- the smoking is more general to oral health (dry mouth/cottonmouth) and also the suction action can be bad right after a exctraction. THe temporary filling isnt so temporary, I had the roots filled in and a temp filling installed and it was in for over a year before i had enough money to get the crown put in.
As to studies done- its like bodywork on a car(its corrosion)/ if you get it done by a true professional (not many around, many are not good at their job) it should be ok for 10 plus years, dentistry work isnt permanent though. It may last 10 years or your whole life, it depends how you take care of it.
Find a good dentist so problems dont get as far as a root canal. I just got hooked up with a great dentist. Ive know him for years from an internet forum and he is the best ive seen. Zero pain on a cleaning and a filling where the old composite cracked.

crazylegs32 · Post by **crazylegs32** » 11 Dec 2009 21:04

theres no "wound" so to speak from root canal. They open the tooth to the roots clear out the nerves and then seal it up before the temp filling goes in.

sidekick · Post by **sidekick** » 12 Dec 2009 19:13

Thanks for the responses.

I have been prescribed Vicodin, but I dislike pills to almost a hatred. I take about one or two a day, and that helps with the pain, but I still prefer smoking for pain relief.

The smoking has had no adverse effects as far as I can tell, the physical act of smoking (the suction of pulling smoke) did cause some pain, but I just went slower and it stopped. Again, after much research and talk, I decided to cut back on the smoking, but I don't think it will harm me past the normal health risks associated with smoke.