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To expect a crown after Root Canal treatment?

54 replies

BoyMeetsWorld · 02/10/2012 09:54

Ok, apologies to any dentistry industry types I offended recently with my rant about dentists - I was in major pain (abscessed tooth) & meant MY experience of dentists really, not every dentists without exception.

Today I finally got my root canal treatment & to be fair my dentist was great - it was quick & almost pain free.

However, he's put a filling over it which to my surprise he said is permanent. From everything I have heard / read you need a crown on a root canal ASAP or you have a big risk of losing the tooth. He is telling me the filling & a bite guard at night will suffice. (ice already paid upfront for NHS Band 3 Crown). When I said I would like the crown really he suddenly said there isn't very much of the tooth left to put a crown on.

What do you think? Is he just fobbing me off do ive paid for a crown but just got a filling? Will a filling actually be enough? & does it sound like I'm going to lose the tooth now anyway (which I was at no point advised)??

OP posts:
TheSmallPrint · 03/10/2012 14:33

I had a root canal about 15 years ago with just a filling and my tooth is still there. Hmm

My DS hates it though and asks if can see my 'grey tooth' then shudders. Grin

fanjoforthemammaries7850 · 03/10/2012 15:01

zelda- they could make far more in private practice so money is clearly not their sole motivation

zeldapinwheel · 03/10/2012 18:38

I didn't say money was there sole motivation, but its always going to be a factor. I don't know any dentists that aren't reasonably well off. No one does it for the love of dentistry.

sarahtigh · 04/10/2012 17:25

many people like their job but would not do it for no pay you could just as easily say, techers don;t teach for love of teaching just because they do not do it for free, yes 90% of dentists are self employed and they have to make a profit to pay staff themselves etc, no profit = bankruptcy no dentist for patient no jobs for staff, no dentists are not poor then but then neither are doctors teachers solicitors nurses all of whom get more than average wage

zelda i doubt very much you would for PCT for free either, very very few people work for altrutristic reasons

success rates for RCT are quite good 10 year survival rates are above 70% on average, nearly 90% for upper front tooth
they are lowest if requires a post and crown, also teeth with one canal more sucessfully than multi-rooted teeth, most likely to require extraction are back teeth that have huge fillings in as well

The success rates for NHS and private general dentists are much the same, the success rate of specialists is obviously better, salaried dentists for various reasons see half the number of patients that high street dentists do, often they are more used to seeing children and vulnerable adults and SN patients ( what used to be called school dental service) but now often emplyted to run emergency NHS dental centres so spend more tie dealing with dental pain than check -ups

the vast majority of dentists and doctors care about their patients obviously there are some that do not play ball but to generalise that all are moneyt making cheats, in scotland system is different so if you need 10 fills you pay for 10 upto a max of about 375 the system in england is unfair on both patient and dentist,

if OP needs molar root treatment the £47 does not even cover one root treatment in terms of cost so dentist needs to see 5 other patients you just need 1 fill at same 47 pounds for equation t balance not fair on the five patients etc

there is some over sunscribing of bite guards, but as mentioned earlier in thread undiagnosed grinding problems used to result in multiple fillings and Rct to get rid of pain whe the correct biteguard in first place would have solved problem,

the balance of types of treatment changes over time as advances made etc, when i was first in practice 20 years ago I probably did 2-3 extractions a daynow i would rarely do that in a week, because then most people in OP position would have chosen extraction now most people want to save tooth, no-one wants dentures, again I used to probably seen 5-6 patients a day for dentures now it is more likely 1-2

sorry that was very long

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