• Dental Phobia Support

    Welcome! This is an online support group for anyone who is has a severe fear of the dentist or dental treatment. Please note that this is NOT a general dental problems or health anxiety forum! You can find a list of them here.

    Register now to access all the features of the forum.

Retreatment through crown

J

Jdee

Junior member
Joined
Aug 8, 2014
Messages
2
I have been having pain in a tooth that I had a root canal on last August. Today I had a CT scan done, and there is another canal that could not be seen on a regular xray.

The endodontist said he can drill directly through the crown. Does this compromise the integrity of the crown in anyway? Also, he said the crown would be filled. Does the endodontist just put in a temporary filling?

I have finally completed my treatment plan, and now this...ugh!!
 
Hi! I'm not a dentist, but did have a RCT through a permanent crown. In my case, it was a tooth that started to die as a result of the crown being put on (the tooth has been quite decayed, so it was not a surprise), but not until about 6 months after the permanent crown was on.

I had all the same questions as you. What my dentist said (and I trust him) is that it's usually totally ok to do a RCT through a crown. He said that, while there's a small chance that drilling through the crown could cause it to break this was unlikely. He also said that this crown will no longer be quite as strong as the others I have, but that it would likely still last for many years.

In terms of filling it... In my case, the endodontist did put a temporary filling in the tooth/crown after the RCT. My regular dentist then resolved the temporary filling with a permanent one a few weeks later. I can't tell the difference (look/feel) between that tooth and the other crowns I have. It's a 2nd molar so I really can't see it, but if it felt weird I would notice.

I hope this information is helpful! Best of luck to you.
 
Hi fearful :)
I see two years has passed from your post here and I am curious if your crown is still functional?
Actually I have the same question about strength of the crown after root canal. The question is we know the crown with an access hole is not perfectly strong but isn't it risky for the tooth? I mean is it possible that the weak crown damages the tooth. For example it fractures and breaks the tooth?
Do you chew with that crown normally? Or you prefer not to chew hard things with it?
Thanks.
 
Hi. The crown is still totally functional and I use that tooth normally. I don't think there's any risk of a weak crown damaging a tooth - I think the biggest risk is the crown breaking/falling off.
 
Thanks fearful!
I know you said your tooth cannot be seen but maybe you like to put light on it and answer this since it is important for me. I am wondering if dentist could cover your crown hole perfectly so that the hole in crown cannot be seen. For example you cannot recognize the margins of the hole. I am asking for cosmetic reasons. When you see the crown, do you realize there was a hole in it?
Thanks so much again
 
It's a molar, so the filling is on the biting surface of the tooth. It looks like any other composite (tooth-colored) filling - so not noticeable to anyone but a dentist who knows what s/he is looking for.
 
Back
Top