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Original poster

How long has your root canal tooth lasted?

107 replies

GentleSloth · 22/06/2024 08:48

How long has your root canal tooth lasted? Which tooth is it and does it have a crown on it? looking for reassurance as am currently in the process of awaiting a root canal and am only 29

OP posts:
Lifestooshort71 · 17/10/2025 11:22

I've had some that lasted 40 years but odd ones starting to crack now. I always had the nerve killed off which means there's no pain now when I need any work redone.

RandomMess · 17/10/2025 11:51

An abscess shows as a pocket on an X-ray. They stay forever, painful if infected.

BobbyBiscuits · 17/10/2025 11:54

Deedoo · 17/10/2025 10:16

@BobbyBiscuits as in infected or pain

I don't think infection, no. It never needed any treatment but the gum around it sometimes hurts a little bit. Dentist has a 'watch' on it but so far it's still there and he's no plans to remove it. Obviously the tooth itself doesn't have any feeling, so it's more just the gum around it kind of flares up occasionally. I am a smoker though which isn't great for teeth/gums.

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Dental health
Deedoo · 17/10/2025 12:36

@Lifestooshort71 how do they kill the nerve off

RandomMess · 17/10/2025 13:00

@BobbyBiscuitsyou need to floss daily etc with a crown as there is more opportunity for food to get trapped etc.

RandomMess · 17/10/2025 13:01

@Deedoothey pull the nerve out with barbed wires. It’s usually all pussy etc

Deedoo · 17/10/2025 13:19

@RandomMess wow never heard of this

Deedoo · 17/10/2025 13:20

@RandomMess when I floss around crown it's so painful

SingtotheCat · 17/10/2025 13:29

7 years. I am now minus an upper canine and can’t afford an implant. I do know lots of people who have root canal failures and would not recommend.

BobbyBiscuits · 17/10/2025 15:03

RandomMess · 17/10/2025 13:00

@BobbyBiscuitsyou need to floss daily etc with a crown as there is more opportunity for food to get trapped etc.

Yeah I know. When I first had it done I had a lot of MH issues and did neglect my teeth. Luckily I have a very thorough hygiene regime now and tp and floss twice daily.

Lifestooshort71 · 17/10/2025 15:36

Deedoo · 17/10/2025 12:36

@Lifestooshort71 how do they kill the nerve off

Used to be called root canal treatment

WearyAuldWumman · 17/10/2025 15:42

I have an apicectomy that has lasted 10 yrs. (That's where the crown is done first and then the root canal work is done. Not how it's normally done, of course.) That's a canine. I'd whacked myself in the face with a car door when I was in my 30s and my teeth were initially patched up with composite. The crown was cosmetic.

I have a regular root canal plus crown that must be over 20 yrs old. It's the tooth just behind the canine. The tooth behind that was root canal only and was done around 30 yrs ago. This year, I had the root canal re-done and and a crown added. I'm 65.

lilyboleyn · 17/10/2025 18:08

SkylarkDay · 22/06/2024 19:27

Had second from the back, upper left molar done. Had a crown put on. Had it for 8 years but had chronic sinus congestion & discomfort in left sinus only all that time. Finally had it pulled last year and the sinus immediately cleared up. Seems it had sadly caused a very small hole into my sinus called sinus communication. Not bothering with implant as at the back and too worried about damaging the sinus again.

Omg this makes me feel vindicated. I asked my dentist to remove my root canal tooth because I’ve had a persistently runny nose since it was done and he refused. I’m building myself up to going to a different dentist to get the bloody thing taken out but it’s 4 from the front and I’m worried about cost of fixing cosmetically.

DocMcMuffin · 17/10/2025 18:13

40 years so far. It’s a bit discoloured but otherwise fine. No crown.

Lunde · 17/10/2025 23:00

My front upper incisor had the root canal done in 1976 following an accident and abscess - the crown was replaced in 1995.

The oldest root canal with the original crown was done in 1983.

WearyAuldWumman · 18/10/2025 00:01

I've remembered that I had one root canal that had to be re-done a couple of times. It didn't last long - after constant abscesses over three years, I had it pulled. It was a bottom molar, on the same side as the upper root canal fillings.

It had become infected after I ate an ice cream cone in York and found a foreign body impaled in my gum.

Silverblue1985 · 18/10/2025 00:18

I had one done when I was maybe 14-ish, this was now just re-done (and a crown put on) and I’m 40 now. Not sure if it just failed or if no other dentist ever mentioned that it’s not reaching all the way down. (It was visible what she was saying, and the difference before/after was obvious).
Upper first molar and I’m hoping for at least another 20 years, though not sure if the crown can be re-done when it breaks one day.

RobinHumphries · 18/10/2025 07:56

WearyAuldWumman · 17/10/2025 15:42

I have an apicectomy that has lasted 10 yrs. (That's where the crown is done first and then the root canal work is done. Not how it's normally done, of course.) That's a canine. I'd whacked myself in the face with a car door when I was in my 30s and my teeth were initially patched up with composite. The crown was cosmetic.

I have a regular root canal plus crown that must be over 20 yrs old. It's the tooth just behind the canine. The tooth behind that was root canal only and was done around 30 yrs ago. This year, I had the root canal re-done and and a crown added. I'm 65.

Edited

That is not an apicectomy. An apicectomy is where the root canal has failed and surgery is done to expose the tip of the root and seal the tooth from that end

Deedoo · 18/10/2025 09:17

@WearyAuldWumman wow infected after eating an ice cream

lljkk · 18/10/2025 09:35

Had one done about 15 yrs ago. Last not-Wisdom molar on one side. This (crowned) RC is slightly failing (inflamed so thought to be infected)... but slowly (had this status for > 2 yrs). Too risky to redo it (near a nerve, possible detritius in there, said dentist & another specialist). I will lose the tooth & can't put an implant there either.

...but maybe not for many yrs yet. My dentist is very 'activist' but content to let this decline play out.

Deedoo · 18/10/2025 10:21

@lljkk inflamed as in decay ? My stupid dentist made it worse did you take antibiotcs

TheBewleySisters · 18/10/2025 10:35

Funnily enough I just an old root canal redone yesterday. The previous root canal was done 40 years ago! (I am ancient). Had a routine checkup and the x-ray showed there was some infection at the site of the old root canal, so he recommended having it redone. One hour in the chair, and totally pain-free experience.

zeebra · 18/10/2025 10:35

For the people that have had implants, how did you find having them done? I am deciding to go for one but have no idea what to expect.

WearyAuldWumman · 18/10/2025 13:10

RobinHumphries · 18/10/2025 07:56

That is not an apicectomy. An apicectomy is where the root canal has failed and surgery is done to expose the tip of the root and seal the tooth from that end

Show quote history

I was told that they had to go through the gum because the crown had been placed at the time as I'd had other treatment - an implant at the front, another crown and veneers for damaged teeth - and the tooth was not going to survive having the crown removed. This was a last-ditch attempt to avoid an extraction and implant.

There was certainly no root-canal treatment at the time of the crown being placed. The x-rays taken prior to the crowns etc had shown that the foundation was apparently sound.

[ETA I can't recall with certainty whether or not there had been root canal treatment on that tooth previously.]

My teeth had been in a bit of a mess - a stone chucked at the front two as they were growing in, and the smash against a car door as an adult. (No, I wasn't drunk. Flat feet, patella alta and hypermobility in the ankles.)

I admit that I wasn't best pleased - after I'd gone through the apicectomy, another dentist at the specialist practice reckoned that she'd have managed to remove the crown safely for ordinary root canal treatment after all. (She had put the crown on; another dentist at the practice did the apicectomy.)

I was left with a blooming awful looking gum - like something out of the Walking Dead, given the way the gum receded as it healed. I was most upset when I saw the result. I then had to undergo a gum graft. The second attempt at the gum graft was successful.

The first one used non-human (pig) material and only worked to an extent. I no longer had a zombie gum, but there was still a gap.

The other option had been human cadaver material which I'd refused. The second time, the periodontist used a graft taken from my palate. It was more uncomfortable but - fortunately - it worked well.

Touch wood, 10 years later it seems fine.

AgnesX · 18/10/2025 13:18

Bottom left back molar. Still going strong after 20 years. Touch wood. One in the top didn't last so well, can't remember how long, 5 years maybe? And needed to be done again.

I'm not sure if the location of the tooth ie top or bottom makes a difference?