• 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.

filling vs root canal

sparklzk27

sparklzk27

Member
Joined
Mar 11, 2008
Messages
65
I just had my first appt today and I am going in to have a filling done behind my top front teeth. the dentist said that they are hoping a filling will be good enough but it may need a root canal. how common is it that they would not know until they try to fix it? also, is there a lot more pain involved in getting a root canal, i know they have a horrible reputation but most of the people i have talked to say there really not much worse than a filling.
 
root canals are little more than a more extensive filling
The annoying (not scary, or any other word = simply annoying) part of them, for me, was having to have my mouth open for the length of time to work on the tooth.

They do take longer, your jaw is more sore from being open longer, but that would be the extent of the pain you *should* expect = a heavier than usual dose of ibuprofen should take care of that discomfort..
:grouphug:
( for myself - the root canal treatment I had done was easier than the other fillings I've had done. He was a nicer practitioner)
 
forgot to add..

sometimes the xray shows less damage than is really there = which is why a more extensive treatment would have to be done.

For both my extractions, both dentists saw the same x-rays and initially said root canal on both - once they got in, they realized there was no way to save either tooth..

My case was severe tho..
 
With some cavities you can't tell until you've cleaned out all the decay as to whether a root canal might be needed or not. Sometimes the dentist can't tell until the tooth has been given a little time to respond. It's very normal for them to mention that, and it's just part of the process.

It's like the physician saying that they won't know whether a patient will need further surgery after excising a brain tumour. If it reoccurs then they may have to go back in for another surgery. Sometimes it won't be apparent until months down the road. Some meningioma's are like that I believe.

One other analogy might be an engine that needs work. The mechanic can't tell for sure whether it's just a valve job or a full cylinder job unless they take the engine apart a bit.
 
thanks for the help, they did say that they might need to wait and see how the tooth does so i'm really hoping that a regular filling is all it will need, because of cost and anxiety. :(
 
Back
Top