Should I pay for failed root canal treatment?

lala6

Hi,
A few months ago I paid €650 for triple root canal on a pre molar. It hasn't worked and now I've been told that I will lose the tooth. Can anyone advise where I stand financially? Should I have to pay for the extraction? Shoul I be even part refunded for the initial treatment?
Many thanks...

Oral Surgeon

lala6 wrote: »

Hi,
A few months ago I paid €650 for triple root canal on a pre molar. It hasn't worked and now I've been told that I will lose the tooth. Can anyone advise where I stand financially? Should I have to pay for the extraction? Shoul I be even part refunded for the initial treatment?
Many thanks...

Root canal treatment is usually required because of trauma or gross decay. Both of these are not your dentists fault.... If a root canal treatment is indicated, the only other treatment option is an extraction...
Root canals have a small failure rate of maybe 5% (higher if done badly). If the root canal treatment was done well and by a competent clinician and failed then that is unfortunate but imo, a risk that one takes when starting treatment. Should there be a refund, i don't think so as the clinician did the treatment, it took time, skill and materials and it was likely done in the knowledge that not all root canals are successful...
I do think that a "free" extraction would be fair...

If you know that the root canal was done to a poor standard then you may have cause to seek a refund but this is hard to prove. You would need an endodontist to examine the tooth and xray and make a call on it- can be a grey area....

If a kidney surgeon does a transplant and the new kidney is rejected, he/she just gets on with planning the next surgery... There is never any talk of refunds etc...

capnsparkles

Good question , a triple root canal on a premolar is complex. It depends on the clinician, personally if it were me I usually will offer some sort of reimbursement or fee deduction as a gesture of goodwill.
Really depends on the clinician , sometimes there can be catastrophic failures such as the tooth fracturing before crown fabrication and finishing the root canal.Technically the root treatment was sound and that was not the cause of failure.
So in brief I would say its down to you and your Dentist , no harm to ask , but there is no hard or fast rule to be applied.I would be interested to hear what the other guys on the forum think.

lala6

Thanks for your replies. He is a good dentist as far as I'm aware and I've been with him for years, so I'm sure his work is not to blame. I kept getting abscesses above it which was why he told me I needed the treatment. It just bothers me as I wanted to have it extracted in the first place as I had to borrow the €650 to pay for it, but I was convinced to try and save it! I appreciate that there is a small failure rate for these procedures but I really feel that I should be reimbursed to some degree...!?

Rob Thomas

While you may feel you were convinced to go down this path originally versus an extraction, the decision was, ultimately, yours to go ahead. The dentist will only have advised you on the best option at the time and this must have been root canal treatment.

You say yourself that you have a good relationship and are happy with their work over some time. So you do not think it was botched or that they were badly advising you, it just didnt work.

Talk it over with your dentist and explain your feelings and position honestly.

If it were me, and I had the relationship you say you have with your dentist, I would be expecting that they will not charge for the extraction but I would'nt expect a partial refund or anything. The work was carried out after all and they should be paid for it.

Its a pity you were one of the unlucky ones after going through the treatment and cost. Best of luck

bucketybuck

I have a related question, I too had a root canal done a few months back but since then the tooth has been mildly sore and very sensitive at times. Spoke to the dentist a few weeks after the work and was told to let it develop for a while, see if it calms down or gets worse. Unfortunately its still the same 3/4 months later.

The thing is, during the root canal the dentist informed me that the tip of the very fine drill being used had broken off in the root of the tooth. She said it would be very difficult to retrieve and hopefully would not cause any trouble once the filling was in.

Unfortunately, the pain I'm getting since is a lot like sensitivity from having a small piece of metal irritating my tooth.

I'm going to be calling them again this week, do you think I should be expecting them to put it right F.O.C?

res ipsa

My rule is if it fails in the first year then i retreat at no charge.

btkm8unsl0w5r4

bucketybuck wrote: »

I'm going to be calling them again this week, do you think I should be expecting them to put it right F.O.C?

Expect a referral to a root canal specialist, you will pay for that. As for the refund of fees for the origional root canals that will depend on the dentists unique policy. The dentist is correct small bits of broken instruments generally dont cause any issues, but sometimes they do.

lala6

Hi again. Well, I had the extraction last Wednesday and afterwards my dentist said it was such a shame the tooth had to be pulled as there was nothing wrong with it!!.... the problem was some scar tissue (I cannot remember the technical term he used for it) that had developed in amongst the three 'prongs' of the tooth and this was what was causing the problem. I cannot begin to explain how annoyed and upset I am. Can any of you let me know if that means that there was never a need for the root canal in the first place, or if there is any way he could have known that that was what was causing the problem, before extracting the tooth?
Many thanks....

btkm8unsl0w5r4

Thats a shame, but implants are a great replacement for missing teeth, so its not all bad.

davo10

"Cystic tissue" was probably the term used, this is often only apparent after a tooth has been extracted as on X-ray it tends to look like a abscess. Th root canal is the only to prolong the lifespan of an infected tooth, sometimes the chronic nature of the infection and the duration it has been in situ can make tissue healing impossible. No way of knowing this before hand and if you errored on the side of caution every time, every tooth would be extracted.

res ipsa

OP Did you have to pay for extraction?

society4

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/97714855#Comment_97714855

Your story is the same as mine……can I ask what the outcome was please?