Anyone had a root canal on a milk tooth that is infected?

[londonparent321]

Long story short:

• 3 year 7 month year old has a pimple on his gum above his incisor, indicating an infection
• the tooth has hit when he fell over a few months ago
• the tooth is slightly grey

Just wondering if anyone has heard of a root canal being attempted , rather than going for an extraction straight away (everywhere I've read says the tooth will be extracted). Trying to get a private dentist appt at the moment.
Thanks

Ds had an extraction age 4 with sedation and an injection. He didn't notice a thing. His adult tooth came in no problem. Dentist said at the time that there was a chance it would grow in grey if it had been damaged when he fell but it was completely fine.

Did you have an infection that necessitated the removal?

What age did the perm tooth pop up at?

Did the antibiotics get rid of the infection? Glad to hear the perm came through ok

@londonparent321 it cleared it up but it kept coming back which is why they tried filling, then removed.

Interesting, so the antibiotics can buy a bit of time it seems.. understand that it is likely to come back after a while..

His tooth wasn't infected, it was just bashed out of place. The dentist removed it because they said his adult tooth was more likely to grow in straight if it had a clear space to grow into rather than having to push a bashed up squjnt tooth outnod the way. It's hard to explain. So he had one missing front tooth from age 4 till about age 7 when his adult teeth grew in. Both front teeth appeared at roughly the same time and they are both completely healthy.

Now that my kid has both his lovely adult front teeth I can tell you to relax and it will all be fine, baby teeth are like practice teeth, it doesn't matter if he loses one.

But at the time I was really upset too and worried about his adult teeth. But we got used to him with a gap, he ate and spoke fine, hardly anyone ever commented.

He had some gas to breathe and the dentist did some weird hypnotic talking to him, I was nearly asleep too. He didn't notice the needle going in or the tooth coming out. Once the gas stopped and he was more awake he asked when his tooth was going to be pulled out he didn't even realise it had happened.

@User280905 , yes, hopefully in 5 years I will have forgotten all about this (and likely found something new to worry about) :)

How old is your little one? And how do you judge if the antibiotics have worked?

We've taking antibiotics but the fistula still looks active

Have you ever had stitches for an extraction? Do you remember losing your baby teeth OP?

You're going completely over the top here. Hopefully your dentist will put you straight a bit.

My daughter had a tooth removed under general anaesthetic because of decay. I'm not proud of this, but I'm being honest. It was fine. It did not really hurt either before or after and it did not affect her adult teeth. She is not traumatised in anyway. Honestly, they can just take it out and move on.

As in, we should just remove the tooth and move on? Yes probably right, it's just that some websites say to try and preserve the teeth, so it's confusing..

milk teeth don't have roots

Your general dentist should refer you to the local Community Dental Service.
If your child is in pain too, get your general dentist to expedite the referral.
Very, very unusual to do a pulpotomy/pulpectomy on a 3 year old, and even more unusual in an traumatised chronically infected anterior tooth.
The standard approach in this scenario with a 3 year old child, would be for the Community Dental Service to extract the tooth plus any other teeth of poor prognosis, under General Anaesthetic on one of the CDS hospital sessions.
Local Anaesthetic extraction isn't out of the question but again it's quite an unusual 3 year old who would permit all that that entails.

Unfortunately I’ve had to extract quite a few and I can assure you they do

Exactly the same thing happened to my eldest.

Tooth bashed and then had a spot like abscess on her gum, abscess burst and cleared up with antibiotics.

Grey front teeth stayed until they fell out. No further issues

Milk teeth do have roots - they get worn away by the adult teeth coming up but if you have them pulled you can see they have roots. I had four of mine pulled (although healthy) because of crowding issues preventing the adult ones coming in. I kept them in a sample tube. 🦷

A root canal puts 'cement' into the drilled out root cavity.

Milk Teeth roots dissolve so the tooth can fall out and the adult teeth can come down.

If the milk teeth roots have cement what happens to the cement when the root dissolves and how would the adult tooth come down with cement In The way.

Surely it isn't possible or safe to do

Wow, the dentist didn't recommend taking it out ? This is confusing me further, I thought taking it out was pretty mandatory..

How many years ago was this? How did you know the infection had gone?

I've worked at several dental hospitals. They do do RC on children but I really doubt a 3 year old would sit there for over an hour having jt done and it may have a negative effect on the way he sees dentists. They might not have to do anything and you can wait and see what happens with the tooth but I'd deff be asking for a ref to a dental hospital esp cos the waiting lists are really long