To root canal or not to root canal?
When I had to have my emergency root canal, the cost of the root canal used up my entire dental coverage for the year. In my case, the root canal was $1250. Getting a permanent crown put ran at another $850. This was in November of 2004- my dentist was willing to put in a temporary crown, send me off with instructions to chew carefully and a tube of fixodent in case it came out, and come back the following January when my insurance would be replenished and would cover it. The permanent crown definitely feels much more natural in my mouth than the temporary one did, but if you can stretch it out until you have more money (or go overseas to have it done) that might certainly be an option. $1000 for the whole works sounds like a bargain. I’d just do it and be done with it, if I were you.
Last check at the office I go to (not too long ago)…root canal plus crown was about $1600. Bridge was $2500 (it’s counted ‘per tooth’: little over $800 for the tooth to go in the gap, plus tooth-caps over the two neighbor teeth). Implant was about $3000. If it really is a root canal including permanent crown for $1000, that sounds like a bargain to me too. I’d go for it. The problem with those live bits of root is that infection can migrate down the ‘canals’ to the base of the root and establish itself underneath the tooth. Happened to me–you cannot imagine the throbbing, horrific pain when you have an infection in what’s basically a closed pocket inside bone. Get ’em cleaned out a.s.a.p. (Keep the receipt in a safe place, in case it comes in handy at tax time, too.
Okay so everyone is agreed. The price is quite good. My main problem with root canal is the level of pain. I know that movies, TV etc etc always pokes fun of this but I am very serious here, I now have a scale for my pain from hmm removing a band-aid (at say 1) to root canal (at 10) but in my head this is a sharply increasing exponential scale. Admittedly at the time the dentist I went may not have been the best in the world (but he wasn’t at dental school either!). YMMV but I thought it was important enough to sign up for an account to bring up the associated levels of pain (my root canals took … 3 sittings so its not like its all over in one go). I still go to a different dentist now but I am much more firm about what I will and wont have done. (Root canal falls into the second category).
I had a root canal years ago (no pain, outside of holding my jaw open that long), closed up with amalgam. The amalgam lasted about 3 years. Dentist drilled out what didn’t fall out, put an offwhite substance in as a temp filling until new insurance year. Have had that for 9 months or more now, no problem. He said it might last up to a year. I’d rather have the tooth pulled, and be done with it, but 4 dentists have looked at me in horror and refused when I’ve asked them to just pull the little bugger. YMMV, of course.
