What are chances of root canal?

[Sapphire]

Hi
I am new here
After a sleepless night, I went to a new dentist (first dental visit in 3.5 years), got a check-up and 14 x-rays. I thought I did great just to do all that! I knew I had a loose/broken very large filling. I am not in pain, but have been occasionally in this tooth and it's not sensitive to cold, just pressure. He said that a root canal may or may not be required once he removes the old filling to do the crown. He can't see from the x-ray, has to wait till he starts working on the tooth. I simply cannot stand not knowing until that moment whether or not I will need a crown plus root canal. It is bad enough to have to have a crown (never having had one before and not knowing how that will feel) but with the possibility of another new very scary thing as well in one visit, I am about giving up on EVER going back. Is there another way to find out first if a root canal is necessary?

 

[Gordon]

There's no easy way to know in advance or your dentist would have told you. It's not like we enjoy building the suspense
Your dentist has the advantage that at least he's actually seen the tooth and I haven't so my guesses will be less accurate than his

Why don't you read up a wee bit about root canals and so on here on this site and then you'll be a bit more prepared if endo is required?

 

[Sapphire]

Thanks Gordon for your reply. I will doing some reading up. He had said it was a good sign that I was not in pain and losing sleep as a lot of people who come to see him needing rct are.