Root canal by nhs dentist - did it work?

[GentleSloth]

Anyone had a root canal by an nhs dentist - did it work?

no, it was a disaster, I was in pain from the moment he did it until 3 months later when I asked him to extract it. I hardly ate for 3 months It crumbled when removed so he said it must have fractured when he did the root canal. All he did in those 3 months was give me antibiotics which did nothing.

I think I need another but am not doing it, am going to ask for it taking out

I imagine that, as in every other walk of life, NHS dentists come with different levels of competence. Other people's experience with other dentists will not help you.

No, mine didn't. At the time I felt lucky to see an NHS dentist at all. I lost the back of my,y tooth and then I had to have it extracted privately. Then I had an implant (£3000) about a year later.

I’ve had two. Both successful. I now have crowns on those teeth. One was very badly infected when the treatment started. My NHS dentist is pretty good.

My dentist considered root canal for another tooth but it was beyond saving and I got an implant, but that had to be done privately.

Yes. Mine was. But the tooth itself was / is sound. You might also want to check they are experienced in the treatment (receptionist referred to this being their speciality). Also assess the whole thing by the number of appointments - you need at least two long (1hr+) ones, spaced one or two (I can't recall) weeks apart.

@MyHouseToday what do you mean by it being sound? surely if it’s needs a root canal it isn’t sound?

I’ve got two appointments booked in one a week after another x

I went to a private dental specialist for my root canal and it didn't work. Cost me £400+.

To be fair, they did say that there wasn't any guarantee.

I think if its the first time that Root Canal treatment has been attempted on the tooth, then there is a higher chance of success.

Yep, I've had two (different teeth!). The most recent last autumn. No problems since I'm happy to say.

No. A year of constant pain and I went back and told her to just pull the damn thing out!

@AgnesX ive had the first stage done 2 weeks ago and it doesn’t hurt anymore, but it feels ‘different’ to my other teeth! Is this normal? X

Had one done on the nhs years ago and was fine but I also paid for one privately last year costing just over £1000 and it failed within 3 months. I then had to pay to get the tooth extracted.

I’ve a NHS root canal that has been in place maybe 7 years . It’s still fine .

There are some great NHS dentists out there

@GentleSloth Well, I'm no expert but my tooth was not seriously infected, damaged or broken, I was just plagued by an unexplained persistent pain that showed something was wrong, just not yet visibly so, and the root canal fixed that. I was mainlining painkillers just to function for the weeks waiting for the first appointment.... But as the tooth was structurally ok my chances of success were probably a bit higher than some of the examples listed here.

If it's still " tender" you might want to ring the dentist. It sounds like the infection hasn't totally cleared up.

Waste of time - take it out! NHS client but dentist also does private so much of a muchness!

Yes - had two and they've both been absolutely fine for years.

I have 3 or 4. 2 were done nearly 40 years ago and were crowned after a decade.

The other is probably 20 years ago and still not crowned.

The specialist for root canals is an Endodontist. A root canal is needed when the root of the tooth, the pulp, is diseased. The endodontist's goal is to clean out the tooth down to the root. Then they pack the roots and tooth and add medicine. When you have your second appointment they make sure it's healed, etc., and prepare to seat the crown on the tooth.

It's far preferable, and affordable, to have a root canal and crown, vs waiting too long and need the tooth extracted, have a post implanted into your jaw, and the tooth secured onto the post. And yes, sometimes for a variety of reasons the tooth will need to be extracted with or without a root canal. It's not necessarily that the dentist did anything wrong.

Mine is still fine after nearly 20 years, so, yes.

@YesItsMe44 I wasn’t saying the dentist had done anything wrong, I’m just genuinely scared of the prospect of losing a tooth so wanted to know some success stories for NHS root canals.

@Scampuss which tooth was this in?

@RandomMess what teeth did you have done?

Yes, worked perfectly, on the NHS but they do private work too - so no difference really. He stopped to xray several times throughout the procedure. 6 years later, no issues.

I've also had two tooth extractions rather than a root canal. They were fine too.

you do not have to have implants after extraction, just leave the gap, I do

Mine failed, but dentist warned me that it might as the root was a bit twisted and she knew it might be impossible to clear out the very end of it - but I was given the information and chose to try it with that knowledge.