What was the longest dental appointment you ever had?

What was the longest dental appointment that you ever had, and what was done during this appointment?

My longest was an hour. I had 3 fillings replaced and 1 molar extract.

I hope for nice answers.

In 1990, my longest dental appointment lasted about two hours — having braces put on my teeth at the age of 42! First, thing they did was do a full cleaning of all my teeth. Then, the orthodontist fit and placed metal bands around each of the first four upper and lower, rear molar teeth. This was followed by putting an etching fluid on all the other teeth to make the tooth surfaces a bit rough. This was soon rinsed off and then a drop of glue was put on each tooth where metal brackets were strategically positioned. Once each was ideally placed, a blue light was used to cure the glue where those brackets did their duty moving teeth for the next few years! Once the brackets were all on, archwires were threaded through and tightly tied in. My mouth was “pried open” the entire time all this stuff was being fitted and placed. I left this appointment with a mouthful of metal where the pressure of tooth movement was already apparent. My mouth was really sore the next few days!

My story relates how modern braces are done. I’d love to hear stories from those who had braces in the 1960’s and 1970’s when getting braces took about 8 hours because EACH tooth had to be fitted with a full metal band. I had a girlfriend in junior high school who had TWO, 4 HOUR appointments, about a week apart, to have her braces put on. She was really sore, in fact crying, after each of those long appointments.

Last week, 2 1/2 hours for a root canal. My tooth had 3 roots where most people have 2.

Mine was 2 hours for two dental implants, my sons was for 6 hours for complete tooth removal and implants for total upper and lower tooth replacement.

I didn't clock it, but about two hours for a dental implant. Which I highly recommend if you have lost a tooth, assuming you can afford it.

Several of them have exceeded 3 hours. I have to be prescribed sedatives before any dental procedure. Even in 2026, they are still slow and painful. If anyone associates the dentist or doctor with pleasure and sex, then please enlighten me.

6 hours for 19 cavities after not blushing and flossing good. I had the gas over my nose and the chair was leaned all the way back. He said he would do the small ones first with no numbing, and the bigger ones with. The smaller ones hurt like hell and I wanted out of the chair so bad. They kept saying just a little bit more or just relax or just pressure. I had to have the bite block because the pain was so bad I couldn’t take it

About 2 hours for wisdom teeth extraction. The last tooth was impacted and had curved roots. Needed several numbing shots and a fair bit of drilling to get it out.

One hour, several times, for crown prep. Never needed more time than that thankfully. These days my cleanings are about 15 minutes as I have been using tartar control products for several years and there is very little scraping necessary. A little picking and probing, and then the polishing.

In the chair, about ninety minutes for a root canal on an old filling that was fossilized and had to be chipped out by the rather put off dentist having to deal with it.

Wisdom teeth extraction in my early twenties that required an over night stay in hospital. I was put out and the dental surgeon had to cut my gums to remove the ingrown teeth. An older nurse belittled me for needing to be hospitalized, saying when she had her teeth out she returned to work after the procedure. Liquid diet post surgery, and if I recall correctly, fellatio.

@UncleO I got you beat on the overnight hospital stay for wisdom teeth extraction. When I was 20, I had all four of mine pulled under general anesthesia in our local hospital. I was admitted on Thursday evening. Had the surgery Friday morning and was discharged at noon on Sunday. That’s THREE nights! Yes, my lower wisdom teeth were horrendously impacted with outrageously twisted roots. They kept me in that long to control expected swelling.

I had six crowns done in just under 4 hours. The entire process wasn’t enjoyable but not nearly as bad as I expected.

2 and a half hours for six fillings on my right side. All 6 molars needed fillings and the 3 lower ones required an extensive amount of preparation for the fillings. Just a ton of slow speed drilling because the cavities were so deep.

About 2 hours for 3 extractions..

2 hours for wisdom teeth extraction, 2 of the tooth was impacted

3 Hours. An excellent large dental school is located at my city and I use them as my regular dentist now. During my quarterly cleanings I have seen the same student every time, although supervised by different dental professors. Seldom is there an assistant, the dental student does everything. A typical appointment begins with a review of blood pressure, medical history, prescribed and non-prescribed drugs including supplements and vitamins, a gum probing, annual x-rays, review of previous dental plan, proposed alterations to the plan, consultation with the supervising professor. The student also does the X-rays themselves, although the radiology center is on a different floor of the school and has its own waiting room. Once approved, the actual work can begin. Because there is no assistant present to manage the vacuum, this school uses a large, soft plastic mouthpiece vacuum head inserted into the patient's mouth. It fills the mouth and effectively protects the tongue and soft tissues in the mouth while allowing access to the teeth while allowing the patient to relax their mouth during the procedures. As each procedure is completed, the professor is called back to inspect, suggest improvements and approve moving to the next. Each appointment has been approximately three hours. I've had seven teeth extracted and a partial denture made there.

Over the three and a half years I've been using this dental school, I've seen two different dentists and a periodontist. My current dentist says I'll have a different dentist my next visit.

Although the process is slow, I'm pleased with the professionalism and quality of treatment I've received.

I just had recently a rootcanal retreatment for a molar, and it was done by a pretty young female dentist who was extremely careful, and maybe even a bit unsure, so it really took some time!

On the first visit she drilled more than one hour, and after that I needed to go to a 3D x-ray to an separate office, which took about 1 hour. After that I returned to chair for almost 2.5 hours! And in that point both she and me were pretty tired, and she proposed to continue next day. So the next day she continued 3.5 hours more, and then the root canals were finally clean and filled with a medication!

The final filling took about 1.5 hours, and a new crown would still be needed fot the tooth. Although, I have now again after 3-4 months some feeling in the tooth, so in the worst case (or actually the best case) the whole retreatment has to be done again! Or the tooth needs to be extracted.

I have also earlier had multiple long visits like 1.5 - 2.5 hours, due to root canals, root canal retreatments, crowns, braces etc. My teeth are really much treated, so I have gone through a huge mount of different treatments, just name it!

It took like 45 minutes to get two of my wisdom teeth taken out.

I think about three hours though I don’t quite remember. It was when I was a teenager and that dentist never actually talked to me, only ever to my parents and they gave me way too much gas so I was completely out of it. I know they pulled a tooth and I think they did a root canal or two and maybe a filling? I don’t know. All I remember is getting there and then having the mask on my nose and getting the numbing shots. I remember being asleep for most of it but waking up every once in a while like when they put in the mouth prop in my mouth and during some extra rough parts when my head moved from the extraction. I also remember them putting the stitches in because I could feel the string cutting against the corner of my mouth.

Approximately 2 hours spread over two visits to measure for gum retraction. Don’t know why he did it, probably to establish a baseline. We moved before the second set of measurements and my new dentist wasn’t concerted about it.

Root canal and cap took ~ 7 hours. Jaw very sore until the next day.