Worried about 6 root canals

I’ve seen both approaches work, and honestly, it’s pretty individual. I hear you on the anxiety with multiple visits—

“the mental side of multiple appointments was worse than the physical recovery.”

Pain-wise, yeah, jaw soreness tends to peak early and then fade pretty fast. But sometimes when you do all six at once, there’s more swelling or trouble eating for a couple days. Did your kid have any issues with that? Or was it mostly smooth after day two? Curious if anyone else noticed differences with recovery time or complications when doing them all together vs. separately...

Interesting point about the swelling—I've noticed some kids bounce back really fast, but a few have had trouble chewing for a couple days after doing several root canals at once. Sometimes it's just a bit of jaw stiffness, but other times, they avoid solid food for almost a week. Did anyone find that breaking up the appointments actually helped with eating, or was it just spreading out the discomfort?

I’ve wondered about this too, because my son needed multiple root canals last year and the dentist wanted to do them all in two sessions. I pushed back a bit since he’s pretty sensitive to pain and has a hard time with dental stuff in general.

Did anyone find that breaking up the appointments actually helped with eating, or was it just spreading out the discomfort?

From what we saw, splitting them up did help with eating, at least for him. After the first couple, he was sore but could still manage soft foods—mashed potatoes, scrambled eggs, stuff like that—within a day or two. When we tried doing more than two in one go (the dentist convinced us to try), he barely touched anything solid for almost five days. He said his whole mouth felt “tired” and even drinking through a straw bugged him. The swelling was worse too.

I guess it probably depends on the kid, but for us it wasn’t just spreading out the discomfort—it made each round of recovery easier to handle. Less swelling at once, less jaw ache. But yeah, total recovery took longer since you’re doing multiple appointments.

One thing I noticed: after each session, we’d stick with cold packs and ibuprofen right away. That seemed to help keep things under control. I also asked if we could space out the appointments by at least a week so he had time to get back to normal eating before the next round.

Curious if anyone’s had a different experience with older kids or teens? Maybe they bounce back faster? For younger ones though, I’d say smaller batches worked better for us—even if it meant more trips to the dentist.

I get why splitting up appointments would help with comfort, but honestly, for us the cost and time off work started to add up fast. My insurance only covers so much, and every extra visit meant another co-pay and more hours away from my job. When I had multiple root canals done, doing them all in one or two sessions was rough for a couple days, but at least it was over quicker—less time stressing about it, fewer trips, and less money spent overall. Recovery was a bit tougher, but I could plan for a few days of soft foods and downtime instead of dragging it out over weeks. I guess it’s a trade-off, but sometimes convenience and budget win out, especially if you’re juggling work and school schedules.

That makes a lot of sense—

I could plan for a few days of soft foods and downtime instead of dragging it out over weeks.