Any mumsnetter dentists around?

[whateverfloatsyourboat]

I haven't been to the dentist for years, literally (to my shame). Somehow just didn't get round to it since having the children though I felt some pain in a back tooth starting a few months ago. A piece of that tooth broke off at the weekend.

I saw a dentist today and he said that from the x-rays he can see that there is decay above the filling in that tooth; he suggested getting the old filling out and doing a root canal BUT that maybe the decay goes too deep, in which case he will have to extract the tooth, and do a bridge.

This is making me feel ill! Firstly because of the money (not in the uk so will have to pay full cost, probably around EUR 3000), and secondly because - a BRIDGE! Makes me feel like an old man.

Is there really no way to save a tooth in this state?

Titanium root implants? They are expensive but you will have a new tooth.
Bridges aren't that good as they weaken the other surrounding teeth that the bridge is fixed to.
(I'm not a dentist btw, just talked to my own dentist about a similar thing)

The ideal thing would be to keep your own root and have a crown built above but if the root canal doesn't go well you won't be able to do that.
Hopefully a real dentist will come along soon! :)

if it's a back tooth just hav e it removed and no bridge done

i had a back one tken out. you can't see it because it's so far round....

but i would try the root canal first

Thank you... I'm going to go and get a second (and possibly third) opinion too. The tooth is the second to last one at the back - you'd notice it was missing if I smiled or laughed, so I'd rather not just have it out. Hope I can do the root canal/crown - the dentist said it was about 50/50 that that would work. Sigh.

p.s. Asked about implants but he said they don't work so well in the top jaw as the bone's not as dense. I've googled it and this does seem to be the general opinion.