A Tale of Three Toothaches

A few years ago I awoke in the darkness of the night with a toothache. The ache kept me awake until morning. Then I called my dentist.

My dentist said to come to his office right away. So I did that. He examined my tooth, took x-rays, and told me to see an endodontist. He recommended one. 

Soon, I was sitting in the endodontist's chair. The endodontist was a pleasant young woman with a ton of fancy equipment in her office. She examined my tooth, then she performed a root canal. Later, she capped the tooth. The procedures cost $3500. As I said, this was a few years ago, so today the cost might be much higher. 

A year or two passed, and then one night I awoke with a toothache in another tooth. This time I did nothing. The pain went away and returned around 3PM. Then, it went away again. But it returned every day for ten days. Then the pain disappeared and hasn't returned.

Another year passed, and one night I awoke with a toothache on the other side of my jaw. Just as before, I did nothing about it. The toothache lasted for seven days, then it disappeared and hasn't returned.

I'm not offering medical advice. I'm just describing my own experiences, for what they may be worth. But I cannot help wondering about that first toothache. What if I had done nothing? Would it have gone away? Could I have avoided a root canal and a crown? I'll never know.