Dental Question

[Flippedy]

A family member has been told by her dentist that she has to have root canal therapy. I don’t know much about these, but I have heard they can be a bit dodgy and cause some problems. Apparently the alternative is having the tooth out, which isn’t ideal since it’s a front tooth.

Has anyone here ever had one of these? Were they successful or painful? Was it a good experience (as good as going to a dentist can be lol) or would you have rather had the tooth out?

 

[BZN]

A family member has been told by her dentist that she has to have root canal therapy. I don’t know much about these, but I have heard they can be a bit dodgy and cause some problems. Apparently the alternative is having the tooth out, which isn’t ideal since it’s a front tooth.

Has anyone here ever had one of these? Were they successful or painful? Was it a good experience (as good as going to a dentist can be lol) or would you have rather had the tooth out?

My regular dentist a few years back [who became a forensic dentist] told me to never have a tooth taken out when there is an alternative.
And my current dentist agrees.

 

[Winston Churchill]

Take it out. Its the 'rust proofing' scam of the dental industry. Not worth the money, pain and on going problems.

My story is different to others. I had a root canal done when i lived in China, took 3 visits (3 days apart) with the 'dentist' sticking pins into the tooth pulling out nerves. On the 3rd visit the needle didnt work as i had built up tolerance to the numbing agent over the previous visits so close, hadn't wept so much since the 89 GF. Worst experience of my life. 10 years later I had the tooth removed back in Australia as it started to crumble. Dentist (ironically a Chinese dude at Pacific Smiles in Newcastle) told me its generally a 50/50 of getting any sort of longevity out of a root canal, 10 years he thought was a pretty good innings.

Should have just pulled it out over trying to keep it.

 

[joebob]

My experience was that I had to have a crown many years ago, maybe 10-15 years ago. Last year, the tooth with the crown starting to give me significant pain. The dentist said you need a root canal. It took two sessions a couple of weeks apart. The pain during the session was manageable. I've had no pain since, touch wood.

 

[Mighty_Tiger]

Have had it multiple times in last few years
They should space it out over 3 visits with 1-2 weeks normally between each.

If you get a good dentist the procedures are very minimal discomfort.

Issue if you lose the tooth is the gap left and will over time impact the other teeth - well that’s what the dentists always say.

 

[upthetigers]

Issue if you lose the tooth is the gap left and will over time impact the other teeth - well that’s what the dentists always say.

There is truth to this. I have had teeth pulled out and the teeth move and form bigger gaps between each one.

 

[Tim Sheens]

Can only speak from my experience Flip, though I have had 3 root canal treatments, which lasted some 10, 12 and 15 years respectively, before those leftover roots and crowns had to subsequently be removed. Thankfully, I learnt my lesson with the first one failing and have chosen implants for subsequent issues, including replacing the 3 canals.

I have 7 implants now, 6 top back and 1 lower front molar, having had work done in Australia, Thailand and Vietnam, with pricing ranging from about $3,900 down to some $600 when my Da Nang dentist was running a 10 million dong special.