I'm reminding myself about how awesome my bed is... mmmmm... bed....
I guess this might or might not be the time, where I say I work for a dental office. I'm so sorry to hear about what you've gone through, Prudence.
No dentist should make you feel that way.
Do you live in California, BTW?
Anyhow, I'll probably send you a PM later, and I might bring this up with the doctor I work for.
Re: the root canals. Yeesh! Yeah, the fuss over root canals is the dying of the nerve, not so much the procedure itself. The procedure is basically designed to relieve the pressure of the gasses being built up by the bacteria being attracted by a nerve that's just called it quits, and to clear it out before things get too bad. The first RC you needed to do probably had a nerve that was already dead. The other side probably got caught a little sooner. Even though it was more painful, it is (I think) better to do it before the nerve completely dies, because you don't want to get a bad infection. Yeesh. OK -- done with too much dental information hour.
Back to your regularly scheduled morning.