How often do root canals fail?

[Xenon]

I have to get 4 root canals, sometime soon and I am terrified of both the treatment and the possibly that all 4 might fail at some point. I guess it’s worrying to me to have to get a treatment im terrified of and then having to get it redone.

How often do root canals fail? From what I see some people have treatments that last forever and then some that have almost immediate failing and have to get them pulled or redone.

I’ve been taking ultra good care of my teeth since finding this out, and I know that’s a factor. I also know that the endo I’m seeing has low (40ish) reviews but they’re all high. I guess i’m worried that at some point it’ll go bad. Even though right now the decay is only close to the pulp and 3 and to the pulp in 1 so I don’t think they would get infected or reinfected if they are infected right now.

 

[Gordon]

How often do root canals fail?

That's a can of worms!

The official stats are between 80% and 97% success rate. However, definitions of "success" are pretty wide ranging with lots of different studies using a different definition of success, hence the large variation in the numbers.
Even using the most pessimistic figures though, 4 out of 5 success isn't bad