Any dentists here?

[Somethingsnappy]

If there are any dentists reading this, I'd really appreciate a question answered.

I have a tooth that, in the past, has had repeated infections. I had a root canal about 8 years ago. There isn't much of the tooth itself left (only about a third of the shell) and today more bits chipped off and this caused the filling to fall out. It isn't painful at the moment and isn't even sensitive to heat/cold.

I don't intend to try to save this tooth or even try to refill it (there's not enough left of it to hold a filling now). The only thing I'll do is have an extraction of what's left of it. My question is; how urgent is this? If I only intend to have it removed, and it's not currently causing a problem, is it possible to just leave it for now and make the most of the little that's left of it, or do I need to have it extracted as soon as possible?

It doesn't help that I have a phobia of the dentist, and have a bad experience of a previous tooth removal.

Thanks for reading so far and thanks in advance for any help with this.

I tell my patients that if it isn’t painful it isn’t urgent. There is a risk that the tooth will break further and there is also a risk the tooth will become infected.

@RobinHumphries. Thank you so much for replying. So do you suggest getting the tooth extracted as soon as possible, albeit not urgently, or would it be possible to just leave it and see how it goes? If the tooth has previously had root canal, does it reduce the risk of infection at all?

Having had root canal does reduce the risk of infection. It is an option to just leave it and see how it goes. If you were my patient I would be wanting to take an X-ray to make sure that the root filling hasn’t failed and that there was no sign of an infection.

I have 2 that need extracting surgically. Both are broken and had fillings at some point which are now gone. I was referred to the hospital just before the world went mad 2 years ago, but never heard anything from them. Neither are causing me any problems, and being somewhat dentist phobic, I fully intend to leave them alone until they do.

Thank you both very much, for sharing advice and experiences.