Who does root canals these days?

[The motor guy]

A few months back my pre molar cracked in half. I went to the dentist and at the time I was like pull it. Well, they didn't ha e time/didn't want to I guess and referred me to a surgeon. The other option was a root canal and crown and they said let me know what I decide. They never gave me any paperwork regarding the root canal and crown. Called back requesting an email for a price on that part and never got back to me. I'm going to assume a regular dentist can't do that either? I was very annoyed with these people. I think they wanted like $3200, but never got anything in writing describing the problem and what they could do. Is a root canal also a surgeon thing? I guess I had some internal cavity that caused the tooth to crack.

 

[wavinwayne]

My dentist does root canals and crowns. He's done a couple for me over the last 20 years.

 

[The motor guy]

My dentist does root canals and crowns. He's done a couple for me over the last 20 years.

Why didn't this dentist want to pull my tooth? It seemed kind of strange.

 

[GON]

Why didn't this dentist want to pull my tooth?

Oral surgeons often pull teeth. When it comes to teeth pull, I believe a specialist can be a significantly better choice than a generalist. Things can take an unexpected turn when pulling teeth, and the oral surgeon may have more resources at his immediate reach if a tooth pull doesn't go as planned, over a dentist generalist.

 

[74DartSport]

If the root looks complex my dentist refers to an endodontist. He’s done some complicated pulls for me and has said any other patient he’d have sent to an oral surgeon,

 

[JayhawkRoy]

Sometimes a general dentist sees that the tooth extraction can be difficult and prefers to refer you to an oral surgeon for the extraction.

An endodontist specializes in root canals. Cracked teeth are not necessarily salvageable with a root canal and an extraction becomes the only choice. I have yet to be able to salvage a cracked tooth with a root canal and crown. I highly recommend finding an endodontist and pay for an evaluation. Then you can make an informed decision as to how to go forward.

 

[The motor guy]

If the root looks complex my dentist refers to an endodontist. He’s done some complicated pulls for me and has said any other patient he’d have sent to an oral surgeon,

She did say that the root was rather deep

 

[spasm3]

Paging @PWMDMD

 

[The motor guy]

Sometimes a general dentist sees that the tooth extraction can be difficult and prefers to refer you to an oral surgeon for the extraction.

An endodontist specializes in root canals. Cracked teeth are not necessarily salvageable with a root canal and an extraction becomes the only choice. I have yet to be able to salvage a cracked tooth with a root canal and crown. I highly recommend finding an endodontist and pay for an evaluation. Then you can make an informed decision as to how to go forward.

My initial thinking was what if it cracks again after a root canal, then $3k later I'm back to square one. Personally since it was out of site, I was down for pulling it until I realized that adjacent teeth can start dying and also shift around

 

[wwillson]

My dentist pulls teeth, does root canals, crowns, and specializes in restorative work. He's an artist at heart. He likes to pull teeth (man do I give him a hard time about that statement!) and likes to do root canals, but with 30+ years of experience, he knows when to do the job himself and knows when to send the job to an endodontist or oral surgeon. He errors on the side of caution.

 

[The motor guy]

My dentist pulls teeth, does root canals, crowns, and specializes in restorative work. He's an artist at heart. He likes to pull teeth (man do I give him a hard time about that statement!) and likes to do root canals, but with 30+ years of experience, he knows when to do the job himself and knows when to send the job to an endodontist or oral surgeon. He errors on the side of caution.

I should have known better than to go to my small town dentist where every 3rd person has a mouthful of rotten teeth. Seemed like a good idea at the time

 

[wavinwayne]

Why didn't this dentist want to pull my tooth? It seemed kind of strange.

If a tooth has a vertical fracture, they sometimes refer these to an oral surgeon.

 

[FZ1]

A few months back my pre molar cracked in half. I went to the dentist and at the time I was like pull it. Well, they didn't ha e time/didn't want to I guess and referred me to a surgeon. The other option was a root canal and crown and they said let me know what I decide. They never gave me any paperwork regarding the root canal and crown. Called back requesting an email for a price on that part and never got back to me. I'm going to assume a regular dentist can't do that either? I was very annoyed with these people. I think they wanted like $3200, but never got anything in writing describing the problem and what they could do. Is a root canal also a surgeon thing? I guess I had some internal cavity that caused the tooth to crack.

You gotta decide what you wanna do. Pull it or crown it? Down here, the root canal guys are specialists and the crown people can be general dentists. Anybody can pull a tooth, but, I would prefer an oral surgeon to pull mine.

 

[The motor guy]

If a tooth has a vertical fracture, they sometimes refer these to an oral surgeon.

Yeah it's a pre molar, so it's got two peaks for lack of a better word and one of the peaks busted off diagonally right in half down to the gumline. I think it's still above the gumline slightly, but it's also got a cavity, so I don't know how that comes into play with a root canal. unfortunately, I don't know a lot about teeth.

 

[loneryder]

Oral surgeons are better at pulling teeth and they numb it better than a dentist. They numb it and then do deeper injections to numb it more.

 

[hrv]

At 70 years old I would just have the tooth pulled...

 

[vwmaniaman]

I had a filling call out that had been in there for 60 years. They referred me to an oral surgeon that wanted $3600 to pull it. I said no way. I have bought cars for less than that. It wasn't a painful tooth and the remaining tooth cracked in pieces and fell out. It fleshed over so no I have no tooth in that molar spot and it doesn't bother me at all.

 

[Gyro Gearloose]

A good endodontist can perform a root canal with no more discomfort than a filling. A root canal and crown are expensive, but your real teeth are the best investment you can make in my book.

 

[PWMDMD]

It depends on the dentist but the specialist for root canals is the endodontist. Like medicine, dentistry is becoming more specialized with more dentists restricting their practices to fewer procedures. The upside here is you get really good at the things you do daily and the downside is patients may need to see someone else to complete some treatment.

Sometimes, it just comes down to how often something presents itself in a particular practice. For example, I'm a pediatric dentist which means because root canals on permanent teeth aren't required all that often in the pediatric population, 8 years went by between the last time I did a root canal and the next time a patient presented for one in my practice. Needless to say, I decided that day that I was so out of practice and that RCTs present so little in my practice, that it made more sense to refer to the people who do it daily. Another example, sometimes my teen patients need a crown on a permanent tooth but the last time I did a crown on a permanent tooth was literally 18 years ago because years and years can go by without a patient needing one - I don't even have the materials to do one or a relationship with a lab to fabricate the crown. A busy general dentist may be doing 3-4 crowns per day and so it makes more sense to refer these teens to a GD.

Sometimes, it just comes down to what a dentist likes or doesn't like doing. We all have things we were trained to do but for whatever reason don't like doing them. My dislike of root canals is partly because I haven't done one forever but also because from the first day in the endodontics clinic to the last root canal I completed, I just hate doing them and since there are people who like doing them, they can have them.

 

[demarpaint]

I had my first root canal done a few months ago. IIRC insurance paid $1,310 for it, it saved the tooth.