Re: Can I avoid a root canal?

The problem is, if you have a bacterial infection in that tooth, no amount of medication (herbal or conventional) is going to get into the tooth to stop the source. Medications may releave the symptoms temporarily, but without removing the source of the bacteria it will always come back.

If the tooth previously had a root canal, and is still causing problems, in the past a second root canal was pretty much the only option. However, with dental implants, that is not the case. Dental implants have a much higher long term success rate than root canal retreatments.

If you never had a root canal on that tooth, chances are it is just a leaky filling that needs to be replaced. Find a dentist that will agree to do an indirect pulp cap. This is a proceedure where the dentist can replace the filling and save the tooth from needed a root canal. It is somewhat technique sensitive and has only a 50% chance of working because it depends on if the tooth can heal itself after the filling is complete. Many older dentists were not trained to do this, try to find a younger dentist that came out of school in the last 10 years or less.

How can you tell yourself if a tooth needs a root canal?
Dentists who are not root canal crazy will do whats called a vitality test. Basically they put something cold on the tooth (below 0 degrees) and see the response. If there is an initial shock that goes away when the stimulus goes away, the tooth has a good chance of survival just by replacing the filling. If the pain lingers 5+ seconds after the stimulus is taken away, the tooth is in the process of dieing and cannot be saved without a root canal. No reaction to the cold means a dead tooth, root canal or extract are the only options.
If you have never had spontaneous pain, or 5+ sec lingering pain, chances are a dentist can save the tooth without a root canal.

Either way, the source of the bacteria is in the tooth, and no amount of medication is going to kill it. You need to remove the source to remove the problem, medications are just going to mask the symptoms and lead to more problems.

There are bad dentists out there, either skill or ethics (just like there are bad people in every profession). The problem is finding a good one who you can trust. Specifically one who is open to any questions you might have and is willing to give you plausible reasons why he wants to do what he recommends. Try to find a dental practice with only 1-2 dentists there. Reason being- they are not as production motivated as larger practices have to be, and they can spend more time with you discussing options. Tweet