Root Canal Treatment can save your broken teeth and roots!

Men are oinomaniacs and women are oniomaniacs; men love wine, women love shopping. What are people obsessed with teeth called - Endodontists, or more simply, root canal specialists! While studying to become an endodontist, we are trained in theory and practice on how to save the hopeless teeth - teeth that other dentists will readily extract to replace with an implant. However badly broken the teeth, whatever root pieces that remain - it hurts our pride to remove a tooth.

  There are obvious benefits of saving a tooth with root canal treatment over dental implants, that include both health and cost benefits. Did your child break his tooth while falling? Have you been carrying a broken tooth from some accident in the past? Has your tooth decayed and broken to leave just a small piece in your mouth? Have your teeth worn down to the roots with passing years? All these teeth can be saved by root canal treatment (RCT). Even if you have been advised to have these teeth removed for artificial tooth replacements - like dental implants or crown and bridge, you must ask your dentist once - is it possible to save these teeth with root canal treatment? Your dentist might seek a specialist (endodontist) opinion or himself lay down the pros and cons of saving the tooth. Then, as per his expert advice and your understanding of the treatment options, you may choose to either save the tooth or have it removed and replaced.

If you can survive it - RCT will save your teeth!

   Caps or crowns can be made on these roots after root canal treatment - giving it both the looks and longevity of your natural teeth. If you earlier lost some teeth and few of these roots remain, after root canal treatment they can be used to support dentures on them (overdentures). These dentures will be more stable in their place than the conventional dentures, that tend to keep falling out.

  You may wonder how a tiny piece of root can be used to support a full tooth crown, or even a denture. While you understand how a cap or crown can be made on a normal tooth, with broken teeth and roots its hard to imagine what will the crown or denture sit on! Because we do not have any crown structure to support an artificial cap, we take support both from the crown and root. 

   So are you afraid of having your tooth pulled out? Do you want to hold onto your natural tooth for as long as possible? Do you hesitate to smile because of your broken teeth? Or does the cost and time needed for a dental implant make your nervous? Thank your Endodontist - for it may not yet be time to dig a grave for your tooth!