Hi everyone,
Sorry my update took so long... holiday hubbub!
A little background: I had great teeth until I was put on high doses of pred for a long period of time when I was first diagnosed with UC. This caused osteopenia and I also believe it caused my teeth to become less strong and less resistant to decay. I've bounced this idea off my dentist and he said he'd never given it any thought, but it made sense that a drug that has ill effects on bone mass would also affect the teeth.
Maybe a year ago or so, I noticed a rough place with my tongue on a lower molar. I went to the dentist and he said the tooth had cracked clean through along the back. He wanted to know how it happened and said it should have been a noticeable pop. I had no idea how it had happened. I was fitted with a crown. This was my second crown. I also have one on the upper, same side.
Recently, I started noticing more and more sensitivity of that tooth/crown to both hot and cold foods. Went back to the dentist and was informed I needed a root canal. Since I already had a crown, it was a one visit procedure that wasn't any worse than having a tooth filled. The crown was replaced. I was told some of the canals didn't even bleed, indicating they were "dead" and I understand that to mean there was a high possibility of infection, hence the antibiotics.
The tooth was sensitive to pressure for a couple of days and I tried not to chew on it, but the sensitivity to hot and cold was gone.
I did okay on the antibiotics. I didn't have any major symptoms, but I did notice some mild digestive upset. If I ate more than just a light meal or snack, I would feel a little queasy and there was definitely a lot of gut rumbling going on. I was glad to get the three doses done.