[Eldarrion]

The way root canals were handled is by usually killing the nerve via opening up the nerve, putting arsenic in and sealing it with a temporary filling for 2-3 days. After that's all done, there's very little pain felt except when the doctor goes far enough to poke at the gums. The procedure does take longer than with anesthesia in that you need two visits for the whole process, but that's how they did it.

[Karunamon]

That explains a lot. I had one of these improperly done on a molar about 10 years ago. After the anesthetic wore off from the first visit, the pain slowly grew over the next few days until it was of brilliant, blinding, bang-head-against-hard-object make it STOP!! intensity.

After they took off the temp filling, the smell was nauseating. Apparently it wasn't cleaned very well.

Never went to that guy again.

[Turing_Machine]

The foul odor may well have been from an infection.

[pavel_lishin]

That is absolutely not normal.

[spyder]

Arsenic? So they not only using mercury in fillings but arsenic too for killing the nerve, nice :(.