Root Canal required?

capital0ne

I use a private dentist, he's very good, I need a crown on one tooth, I know that I've chipped off both sides and all that sits proud is a filling - remains of that is.

The same checkup he took an xray of a single tooth which has a large filling and a couple of posts holding it in - it's been fine for 12+ years and I'm not bothered by it, no pain no sensitivity, as far as I'm concerned it's not a problem. The xray he says (and he showed it to me) needs a root canal and then a crown.

Now what I'm concerned about is the root canal treatment. I have no pain or sysmptons and the xray he says shows the nerve endings as 'dodgy'' - not hois term but his meaning and there is abit of decay. To me it looks like the tooth next to it so what does everyone else think?

Go with his experience and have the root canal, leave it and keep a watch on it?

The worst that can happen is an abcess and emergency treatment.

I should just add I've never had any problems with my teeth in the past 68 years - Until a few yeasr ago I didn't go to the dentist for 10 years and when I did I had one tiny little filling. And since then none in the last 5 years!

Toothsmith

There's no way you can describe on here everything that any dentist would need to make an accurate assessment of your mouth - so anything anyone could say on here would be nowhere near as good as the opinion of the dentist who can see you, and knows your history. Plus - you seem to quite like your dentist.

So trust his opinions.

A tooth that has never had anything done to it can potentially last you your entire life without anything going wrong with it.

Once a dentist has had to put a filling in it though - then that dental work has a lifespan.

The smaller the fix needed, and the better it's done, the longer it will last, but none the less, the clock is ticking.

By going to see a dentist regularly (now!) then you are allowing him/her to check over your teeth regularly and potentially pick up things coming to the end of their time, and fix them before they become a major problem. They would also be able to fix them in a less damaging way, which may well mean the tooth would last longer, or give you less trouble than if you hung on until it hurt or broke.

Remember as well - teeth never break or start hurting at a convenient time!!! It will either be when you are on holiday, your dentist is on holiday, or on the eve of a big important family occasion.

If you're paying lots of money to this person for their professional opinion - then this is the person you should be asking all the questions to and who you should be listening to. Getting too many opinions, especially from people with limited information, will only confuse things more.

Good luck with it.

capital0ne

Toothsmith wrote: »

There's no way you can describe on here everything that any dentist would need to make an accurate assessment of your mouth - so anything anyone could say on here would be nowhere near as good as the opinion of the dentist who can see you, and knows your history. Plus - you seem to quite like your dentist.

So trust his opinions.

Good luck with it.

Thanks for that, I've only had two checkups with this dentist so my history is 12 months old

An initial inspection and check - no problems - no work needed
Six months later - nothing needed
Chipped tooth but I had a checkup due in a month
Annual check - Recommended a crown on chipped tooth
I decided to leave it
18 month checkup - booked crown. Another tooth with this large filling was recommended a crown even which I know is inevitable so it was xray'd and root canal was recommended then a crown.

So my history is only 18 months, but writing this out in this fashion I think convinces me it's the way to go, so thanks Toothsmith, you've made me see this correctly. It makes sense

G_M

So either
* you need the root canal treatment or
* the work is not immediately essential but could prevent a likely problem in future or
* the dentist is not very good and his advice is wrong or
* the dentist is trying to create expensive work to increase his profits

Which do you suspect?

* If the first, get the work done.
* If the 2nd, make a judgement - save some money that might never need spending and avoid unecessary work on a currently untroubling tooth, but risk a problem at an inconvenient moment (and potential extreme pain!)
* If either of the last 2, get a 2nd opinion!

Toothsmith

capital0ne wrote: »

Thanks for that, I've only had two checkups with this dentist so my history is 12 months old

An initial inspection and check - no problems - no work needed
Six months later - nothing needed
Chipped tooth but I had a checkup due in a month
Annual check - Recommended a crown on chipped tooth
I decided to leave it
18 month checkup - booked crown. Another tooth with this large filling was recommended a crown even which I know is inevitable so it was xray'd and root canal was recommended then a crown.

So my history is only 18 months, but writing this out in this fashion I think convinces me it's the way to go, so thanks Toothsmith, you've made me see this correctly. It makes sense

Even after 18 months, you can see a 'direction of travel'. You can see the teeth that are staying the same and you can see the teeth that are deteriorating. Be that fillings that are deteriorating or early signs of decay that are getting worse.

In fact, from what you've typed, I feel even better about your dentist.

What I don't like are dentists who suggest huge, expensive, highly complex treatment plans on patients they've only just seen for the first time.

Initial treatment plans should fix what's obviously broken (generally in the simplest way possible) and then over the longer term you should get to know the patient, correct any bad habits with diet, cleaning or things like smoking, then (and only then) when the oral health can be successfully maintained by the patient should you go on and provide the complex stuff.