Please share your root canal experiences to ease my nerves...

[toothie100]

Unfortunately I was a victim of dental trauma from orthodontics. My tooth died and I want to preserve my natural tooth as long as I can but I'm also terrified of root canals from everything you hear about them.

I know there are people who are OK even with a root canal. I know that. But every time I read about someone not being OK and knowing they had a root canal I get scared.

I'm also scared because my tooth is a visible one. Seems like most people in my situation have a front tooth die but mine is 2 teeth from the front tooth. I will go to an endodontic specialist and ask for internal bleaching, but I heard it doesn't last that long.

I never expected to get my first root canal before 55 years of age (I'm in my 30s) because nobody in my family had one before that. My dad has 0 root canals even and he's in his 60s. Needing root canals doesn't seem common in my country and I have never heard about anyone with this side effect from braces so I feel very alone. I only see this when googling and finding American websites.

I know you read a lot of scary stuff about root canals because people who had problems from them share them. But can people here who had root canals please share your experience and if you've had health problems after getting one. I understand that you can't know for sure the cause of a health problem, but I'd love to hear stories of people who had their root canals for MANY years and are still in good health (including less dramatic stuff like sinus problems) I feel like that's what I need to hear right now.

Also, if you had it on a front tooth or a tooth that's visible (without a crown): how has it held up appearance wise?

Would also like to know how many years you were able to keep your tooth before having to get an implant...

Thank you all.

 

[letsconnect]

Hi and welcome @toothie100, one of our moderators wrote a very in-depth description of her root canal experiences - you can read about them here:

My root canal experience

Do you want to find out what root canal treatment really feels like? Get a blow-by-blow account (and no, it's not scary)!

www.dentalfearcentral.org

I know lots of people in their 80s who have had their root canals and who are still in good health (apart from the usual niggles that come with older age). Is there anything in particular that worries you? I know there was a very poorly researched pseudoscientific Netflix programme in 2019 which spooked people, the content was mostly based on an internet quack called Dr. Mercola who was peddling "natural health" supplements (not sure if he's still around or not) who decided to unearth a century-old theory by a guy called Weston Price, which had been thoroughly debunked since.

 

[toothie100]

@letsconnect I will check out the link. Thanks

That's good to hear, but I assume they perhaps didn't get their first root canal in their 30s? I mean, if I had gotten my first root canal at 60 I wouldn't be as worried and 80 would mean I only had it for 20 years. Like, will it last for 60 years? Or will it only last until I'm 50 and will I need a dental implant already at 50, which might only last to 70? I feel like 70 is still pretty young for being old, if you know what I mean. Many of my relatives have lived to 85-late 90s and it wouldn't be fun to not have a visible tooth.

Even if the root canal itself holds up well, I'm scared about the appearance. I read that many people who don't need a crown on any of their visible teeth usually end up with a really gray tooth.

And I heard about the documentary but never saw it. But still to this day there are people who claim they felt better after extracting their root canal tooth. I used to work with one person who briefly mentioned extracting a root canal treated tooth but I don't remember the details and am not in touch with her anymore so I can't talk to her. And she's a VERY holistic person. I am too but not as much. But it was a molar so it's easier to extract without issues since you can't see it...