Root Canal Treatment

[Mog]

Yesterday I had to have two upper rear teeth filled. The dentist said she had to drill close to the nerve on one of them and therefore it might need root canal treatment if an abcess appears because of damage to the nerve. I wasn't sure if she was warning me just in case or if their is a high chance of an abcess forming (I know I should have asked more questions but I'd just spent 50 minutes in the chair and was a bit dazed). Has anyone had the same thing and can you tell me what the outcome was - and is root canal treatment as awful as it sounds. I'm also 31 weeks pregnant so don't want any of this to happen in the next few weeks. Would appreciate any info.

robinw, could you possibly expand on your husband's story? I'm in the same scenario - deep filling on tooth and warned about RCT in future. But after 24 hours of antibiotics the pain has largely gone. Did his dentist explain why the antibiotics worked in his case?

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ribinw, thanks for the reply. I changed dentist not long after becoming pregnant so she has never seen X-rays of my teeth. It was her, however, who put the deep filling in on Christmas Eve. I had no problem until last week and so went back. She wanted to take the root out and was certain it needed RCT despite not taking an X-ray. When I questioned this she said she was sure from the timing of the onset of symptoms. At my insistence, she reluctantly agreed to prescribe antibiotics. The reason I want to try this route is that I've had three tooth infections in my life, once before our wedding, and two within 6 weeks of the end of my pregnancies. I'm just wondering if this could be caused by my body being in a weakened state.
On the other hand, the dentist could be absolutely right and I'm denying the inevitable. However, I noticed with my last pregnancy that having dental work after labour was a piece of cake as my discomfort threshold had changed greatly!! Given the choice I'd prefer to wait until after the birth but it might be taken out of my hands if symptoms return.

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