QUESTION: Hi, I had a root canal last year without a crown. Now I am getting pain as if I have a cavity. What products would you recommend I purchase? Thank you in advance. – Norma
ANSWER: Norma – Root canals and crowns do not always go together. Sometimes they do, but not as a necessity. Crowned teeth do not often need a root canal and root canal-ed teeth do not often need a crown. Putting them together all the time is more marketing than science. Often a root canal-ed tooth needs some “breathing room.” It is non-vital and the bone has to adjust a tad to that.
You have pain. Have the tooth checked for a traumatic bite and have it reduced, almost taken out of occlusion, so you can hardly touch it. We would use our calcium materials on too. If nothing helps it, the pain remains, or the tooth becomes quite loose, it is cracked and may have to be removed.
In recent studies electron microscope research found that root canals work very well, about 98% of the time. But, if a tooth is cracked it cannot heal and may become infected, so it should be removed. Almost all “failed” root canals are cracked, that is, the root canal did not fail, the tooth was cracked in the first place, no one could find the crack, and the tooth failed, not the root canal.
This research was great to learn because it explains clearly why root canals succeed at a very high rate.
Mark DDS