Root canal not sure if I'm doing the right thing

[Little tiger]

My LR7 had a deep filling which ended up with the tooth being infected so my dentist suggested a root canal. My dentist left and I ended up with my gum swelling up so my new dentist gave me antibiotics that helped but said the infections got worse inside the tooth so he recommended an extraction.
My last dentist said a root canal would be about 90% chance success but my new one said 60%-70% due to the infection had got worse and also said the problem could come up again in the future.
I want to save the tooth and was planning to carry on with the root canal. I have very high anxiety and just see cons and risks of all options. I have fear of implants as well as my money is very limited, having a partial denture I would have as last choice but would choose that if do have to have the tooth extracted as I was told I could lose my upper tooth after some years with the bottom tooth being missing.
There is an in-house endodontist which my dentist would call if he felt it's needed.
I have fears of all treatment as I heard so many horror stories from people about root canals (you would think root canals have 90% change of failure from what I get told!).
I have fear of treatments going wrong and getting in pain and suffering later especially due to lack of money worried about having to keep paying for so many treatments.
Do you think I'm taking too much risk wanting a root canal?

 

[MagicDuck12]

Why do so many people need root canals? what is this all about, is it a genetic thing???

So many people here end up with multiple root canals

 

[Gordon]

My last dentist said a root canal would be about 90% chance success but my new one said 60%-70% due to the infection had got worse and also said the problem could come up again in the future.

Don't like the 2nd dentist's answer much. Severity of infection before the treatment is not really a factor in success or failure of the RCT, a specialist endodontist would be looking at higher success rates than 60%, assuming a fairly straightforward root canal system and not a re-treatment.

 

[Gordon]

Why do so many people need root canals? what is this all about, is it a genetic thing???

So many people here end up with multiple root canals

No it's not genetic.

My best explanation would be: people on here are phobic about dental treatment or wouldn't be posting here. They unfortunately are resistant to visiting a dentist for treatment until something pushes them into it.

Decay will then be far more advanced than in someone who isn't phobic about going for treatment and thus more RCTs will need to be done.

 

[Little tiger]

@Gordon I managed to get an xray. Do you think it's as bad as the dentist thinks? He was just straight "extract it!" and it sounded like a hopeless case. You can see it's the one with the deep filling.

 

[Gordon]

Looks like an endodontist could sort this one. It has 3 roots going by that film, which is unusual and adds in a bit of complexity, but the roots seem pretty straight so that's good.

 

[Little tiger]

@Gordon That is typical of me having something unusual!
I'm now in a lot of panic. I had an abscess on the gum under the tooth which the dentist gave me 5 days of amoxicillin which I didn't feel it went down but when I went in a few days ago the dentist said that it's cleared (it had just gone down in size). However this morning it went white and I gently pressed it and it burst which a small amount of liquid then some blood. I've did salt water right away and waiting for the dentist to open this morning but it looks like it's a bit bruised and gone back to the pre-antibiotics size.
Bad timing as yesterday I just emailed to ask a new dentist with an endodontist about an assessment!!
I have been extremely stressed lately due to two deaths in the family, my last dentist said stress lowers immunity so I guess it makes sense why it appeared during this time.

 

[Gordon]

There is no reason to panic.
A burst abscess is a good thing, gets all that gunge out of your body and lowers the pressure round the tooth. It doesn't affect the chances of fixing the tooth but it should reduce the chance of you having pain from it for a while.

 

[Little tiger]

@Gordon Thank you so much! I was panicking all day (I just had to Google didn't I!) and my dentist said they'll come back to me later... which they didn't.
Luckily I managed to book in an appointment with someone else to look so fingers crossed I get a more positive appointment. My other dentist said I had some bone loss as well making the root canal less positive, he though some food might had got in causing the abscess.

 

[Gordon]

My other dentist said I had some bone loss as well making the root canal less positive, he though some food might had got in causing the abscess.

You have a very slight amount of bone loss, it will have zero impact on the root canal and his theory is utter bollocks. Was this the same dentist who did that filling in the tooth in question?

 

[Little tiger]

@Gordon This was actually a new dentist. The one who did the filling had left very recently but they're opinion were very different. Though the 1st opinion was in January and this was in July so there was a bit of time gap but he said the infections got a lot worse and gave me the great "the infection could spread to your brain" talk.
I'm going to a different dentist next week to see someone who is more specialised so I'm crossing my fingers for a better opinion.

 

[Gordon]

Good luck, I hope you get some more sensible answers

 

[Little tiger]

@Gordon I've got given an 80% chance of success with this different dentist. The only thing is he'll have to check for any cracks just in case as he opens the tooth up I think because of the deep filling is in the pulp but there's no cracks on the outside so that's one good thing!

 

[Gordon]

Yes, the deep filling is absolutely into the pulp, checking for cracks is routine, I'll be shocked if there are any.