I had a root canal done a number of months ago. Not much fun, an hour and a half of drilling and poking and cutting and burning-tooth fumes going up my nose. It didn't hurt too much as she froze me up quite well and gave me more whenever she saw that I was in discomfort. There was also a tv in the ceiling so I watched a WRC rally while the whole thing was going on. That helped to take my mind off it (although not too much).
Then, before I could get back in there for the crown work to be done, I was eating some corn chips and there was a huge cracking sound and no little pain as that tooth cracked in half all the way down to the root. I didn't even think that I had been chewing on that side of my mouth.
So back in I went. It was very upsetting to hear that the only recourse was to remove the tooth. I actually wouldn't let her do it that day, I went back a few days later to have it done. I guess I needed some time to come to terms with it (eating was VERY uncomfortable for that period). So there I was for another hour and a half of treatment similar to what you describe. That tooth came out in about 6 peices. Luckily it was a Friday and there was some F1 qualifying on the tube. After I left the office, however, I couldn't recall a single qualifying run I'd seen. I still didn't know who was on pole and I was completely physically drained as though I'd had all my muscles tensed for the entire time (most likely did).
Now I've gotten used to the hole in my mouth, I don't really notice it too much unless I'm chewing something sharp that cuts up my gums there. Also there's no longer any thermal protection there. If I put something into my mouth that's too hot I used to be able to open my mouth slightly and breath in and out to cool it a bit while keeping it on my teeth. Now it just burns the gums in that spot. I'm adapting, though.
I keep being reminded by my dentist that I have to go in to have a bridge made but the way they do that is to make a crown for the tooth on either side of the hole with a third suspended between them. I can't bring myself to let her grind all the enamel off those two good teeth just to fill the hole. The problem is that those teeth on either side shift a bit and have the possibility of tilting into the hole. I guess I should just go have it done so that the tomorrow-me can have nicely aligned teeth and be able to chew properly but the today-me doesn't want to go through all that again.
I guess I could just schedule it so that there's something good on TV
