Don’t hesitate to have a root canal if there’s a choice between that and losing a perfectly good tooth that’s anchored well into the bone. You can read horror stories about almost anything…those are the tales that get told. People seldom write about positive or successful procedures and surgeries.

I can’t even tell you the number of times patients would leave the chair after a root canal treatment (rtc) and say “That wasn’t as bad as I expected”. Or “That didn't’ hurt at all! Or “I don’t know why I was so worried.” Most of the time these are non-events that got a bad reputation somewhere along the line.

When a person needs a root canal treatment it means the nerve or nerves in the tooth have died. Some teeth have only one root, some have 2, 3 or more. Each root has a nerve feeding up through root tip into the nerve chamber of the tooth. If the dead material isn’t removed, it can decompose, creating gases and pus as an infection begins. This can cause an abscess to form at the tip of the root as this material escapes from the tiny hole at the root tip into the bone.
In a RCT, the dead nerve tissue is removed from the canals of the tooth, then the canals are filled with a special medicated filling or inert material to avoid a return of the infection caused by the dead nerve tissue. At that time, the tooth is considered non-vital and can become brittle. That’s why it is recommended after a Root Canal Treatment (RCT) to have the tooth crowned (capped). That is much less expensive, less invasive and healthier than having the tooth removed and then replaced with an implant and a crown. Both are viable options but if that RCT tooth is structurally sound and well anchored in the bone it would be a shame to lose it.

So fingers crossed you never need a RCT but please don’t cross that off the list of options. They are good alternatives to losing a tooth. ☺️