Root canal & crown vs Extraction - Need to decide urgently

PuppyLove

Had a post done up but it seems to have disappeared so i'm make this one shorter.

Suffering with teeth sensitivity and pain following a motor car incident a few weeks back, pain got worse so visited dentist today turns out i've cracked a tooth and now have an absess. I've been given 2 choices, get a root canal and crown done (cost approx 1,000) or get tooth extracted.

So main problems for me are I absolutely hate the dentist (not personally) just find it all very stressful and hate the smell and sound associated with it, and obviously theres the big bill which I would need to borrow to pay if I go the root canal treatment.

My initial reaction was to get tooth extracted, dentist prescribed antibiotic and told me to take a few days before making a decision. If I was to get the tooth extracted it would be partially visable which I would smile but not a huge issue for me vs the thought of other choice.

Any advice/ feedback would be appreciated, I am due to get nerve ending killed in next couple of days (not sure if that would need to be done either ways no matter what choice I make). I'm currently on 2 different pain killers for injury from car incident so a bit petrified of adding anymore pain by getting root canal done (which going from previous posts can be extremely painful. Anyone any life experience please, thank you?

DeanAustin

Never had a root canal but have heard a few horror stories from friends about them taking hours or having to be extracted afterwards anyway (and I've heard instances of both). That said, I've never had a root canal so I'm not best placed to advise you on it.

Extractions are actually ok (relatively speaking) and I am petrified of dentists. Had two done recently and there was little or no pain and, although this shouldn't be the driver of your decision, it's a lot cheaper.

helimachoptor

Have had 2 RCs, no issues with either.

It is always better to keep your teeth, it's not just a simple case of extraction and problem gone. Removing a tooth has other impacts that one of the dentists can detail.

btkm8unsl0w5r4

its always better to keep savable body parts rather than amputating them. Lost teeth have knock on effects for your jaw bone, alignment of the other teeth, cleaning and chewing function.

If the tooth is savable....save it if you can. Older people come into me all the time and say "well in my day dentists just took out teeth"....dont make the same mistake.

Chuck Stone

Save your tooth and ignore the scare stories.

Pawwed Rig

I've had 4 root canals and one extraction. I always regretted the extraction and ended up paying a fortune gettiing a bridge done years later.
I never had an issue with a root canal. While it is not the most pleasant experience of my life it is not the worst either. I would say marginally uncomfortable.
Will the insurance not cover it?

helimachoptor

Op 4 replies in the space of 5 mins here, get the RC and keep your teeth so that you can do the below

:D:D:D

username123

I had a horror story root canal. Dont know if Id ever have another tbh. Horrendously expensive as well, cost me over 1k in total and I still havent had it crowned. In saying that its better to keep a tooth - which is why I had it done in the first place, but after my experience I would really find it difficult to go through such a thing again.

helimachoptor

username123 wrote: »

I had a horror story root canal. Dont know if Id ever have another tbh. Horrendously expensive as well, cost me over 1k in total and I still havent had it crowned. In saying that its better to keep a tooth - which is why I had it done in the first place, but after my experience I would really find it difficult to go through such a thing again.

Was it a specialist or general dentist you went to?

DeanAustin

helimachoptor wrote: »

Op 4 replies in the space of 5 mins here, get the RC and keep your teeth so that you can do the below

:D:D:D

Yes seems I'm in the minority or all of you lads are dentists touting for as much business as you can get

To be fair, I had to get mine out as they were beyond repair and if the teeth were visible (thankfully they weren't) and could have been saved, I would have seriously looked at a root canal.

Zardoz

How bad is the crack in your tooth OP and is it a vertical crack ,if so extraction might be a better option as a root canal may not be successful .

username123

helimachoptor wrote: »

Was it a specialist or general dentist you went to?

Endodontist. Theres a thread on it here. I dont blame the endodontist for my horrors btw, its just the way things went.

But given the pain, the cost, the gagging from the rubber dam, ending up in A&E from the chemicals used seeping into my sinus cavity, and the never ending procedure itself which took 3 sessions followed up by a session to repair the collapsed filling in the tooth - I just wouldnt want to go through something like that again. It was a month of my life that Ill never get back.

helimachoptor

DeanAustin wrote: »

Yes seems I'm in the minority or all of you lads are dentists touting for as much business as you can get

To be fair, I had to get mine out as they were beyond repair and if the teeth were visible (thankfully they weren't) and could have been saved, I would have seriously looked at a root canal.

I'm not a dentist, I just mod the forum. Though i have had a decent amount of work done

StompToWork

Personally, as it would appear I have the same attitude towards dentists as the OP, I would go for the extraction. I have had 2 adult extractions over the past 15 years, and it hasn't effected my features, bite or smile in any appreciable way. Edit : Although every case is unique

Having a fear of the dentist can't be talked away by simply saying "there is nothing to be scared about, just get it done". For those, like me, who have genuine bad feelings about dentists, then it is really fecking stressful.

All that said, the OP is soliciting advice. My contribution is "Go for the extraction". Neither option is ideal (outside your control OP, due to crash), but extraction is the lesser of two evils, IMHO.

theteal

There are horror stories? I thought that was just the price! Go for it, OP

I had a RC done about 8 months ago. It took 4 visits over a 2 week period, it was relatively painless apart from a small infection that developed between the last canal bit (technical term ) and the crown going on. It cost ~£400 all in (which included a white crown and not the standard NHS one which was cheaper but looked kinda metallic iirc) which I thought was freakin' great considering prices that you hear at home

irishgrover

Hi Op,
root canal, al the way. Loosing a tooth is a big loss.
I've had a number of RCs and a number of extractions. Personally I've never found the RC to be any worse than other proceedure, fillings etc
However I've found the extractions to be much worse, in terms of stress, pressure etc.
Regardless even it RC was worse than extraction(which is not the case in my experiece) I would still advise going to RC and keeping the tooth.
Sorry to here about your acident and best of luck with whatever you decide
Also have you considered that your insurance might cover the cost as it is related to the acident?

Clarehobo

PuppyLove wrote: »

Had a post done up but it seems to have disappeared so i'm make this one shorter.

Suffering with teeth sensitivity and pain following a motor car incident a few weeks back, pain got worse so visited dentist today turns out i've cracked a tooth and now have an absess. I've been given 2 choices, get a root canal and crown done (cost approx 1,000) or get tooth extracted.

So main problems for me are I absolutely hate the dentist (not personally) just find it all very stressful and hate the smell and sound associated with it, and obviously theres the big bill which I would need to borrow to pay if I go the root canal treatment.

My initial reaction was to get tooth extracted, dentist prescribed antibiotic and told me to take a few days before making a decision. If I was to get the tooth extracted it would be partially visable which I would smile but not a huge issue for me vs the thought of other choice.

Any advice/ feedback would be appreciated, I am due to get nerve ending killed in next couple of days (not sure if that would need to be done either ways no matter what choice I make). I'm currently on 2 different pain killers for injury from car incident so a bit petrified of adding anymore pain by getting root canal done (which going from previous posts can be extremely painful. Anyone any life experience please, thank you?

OP, I know exactly where you are coming from. My stomach turns any time I have to get into that chair. Have a chat with the dentist and see what impact the extraction could potentially have.

I had to get a RC and crown on a molar tooth back in 07. If I had the tooth extracted, my dentist advised that more than likely my teeth would spread out to fill the gap so I went with his advice. I had no problems with it.
I went to a great guy for the RC who was good with nervous patients - I was very tense and nervous for the procedure but he was brilliant and I didn't feel a thing: I was well drugged up. At the time I got to claim a large part of the cost back through my PRSI contributions.
I haven't had any issues with the tooth since and it has probably saved me a fortune in corrective work.

PuppyLove

Sorry all for not coming back on this, went with RC etc., have to say it was very painful, not sure if i'd go through with it again, had terrible pain after it for a few weeks, evening typing about it makes my teeth feel sensitive, on the plus size it looks a lot better than the gap, thank you all for your advice, much appreciated.

BostonB

Just to be aware, not all RC are painful. Only one of mine was, the other was painless.

helimachoptor

I've had 2, without any issues at all