Dental advice wanted – root canal treatment
"About a year or two ago I got a root canal on one of my first premolars. Everything’s fine, until about a month ago when most of the front side of the tooth chips off, nearly all the way to the gum. The back side of the tooth still firmly in place, no sign of corrosion or chipping. I’m busy with work and college so I don’t get around to booking an appointment. Doesn’t hurt because it’s a root canal. Dead tooth.
So 5 minutes ago the filling for my root canal falls out. I’m freaking the hell out. What’s the likelihood of me keeping my tooth? Will they fill it back up and put a cap/crown on it? I know none of this isn’t life threatening but I really dislike the thought of having my tooth removed."
ANSWER
The tooth was obviously in trouble a year ago because you had to have a root canal filling. And then presumably you had a filling on top of this. It would have been much better at that time to have had a crown put on the tooth after the root canal treatement to stabilise the tooth. However a filling is a cheaper option (although not as good) after root canal work and perhaps you chose to have a filling instead of a crown or perhaps the dentist recommended a filling to keep costs down. When part of the tooth fell off recently you should have gone immediately to the dentist for some kind of remedial work. The longer you leave going to the dentist the more likely is that you will have trouble with the tooth/lose the tooth. It is very probable that infection will occur very soon if not already.
If the tooth is to be saved – and only an xray and a dentist will be able to tell you that – it will need a post and a crown. If the tooth cannot be saved the tooth will have to be extracted because you cannot leave an infected tooth/gum unattended.
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