Re: Root Canal On #31 - What Am I In For?

Patrick Melton wrote:
Mark & Steven Bornfeld wrote:


The injection likely was painful because the dentist got "lucky" and
hit the nerve directly. The plus side is you usually get instant, deep
anesthesia. The minus is you get a stabbing pain radiating from your
ear to your lip.
Assuming you are right and the tooth does need root canal, more and
more endodontists are treating teeth (even molars) in a single visit;
however, each tooth is individual and must be considered on its
particular merits. You should expect good pain control during the
procedure and adequate pain medication should you need it after the
procedure.
The average cost around here (Brooklyn NY) for an endodontist treating
a molar is $1,000-$1200. The tooth will almost certainly need a crown
afterward. If your insurance works on a calendar year you can easily
wait until 2007 to have the crown done.

Good luck,
Steve

--
Mark & Steven Bornfeld DDS
http://www.dentaltwins.com
Brooklyn, NY
718-258-5001


Waiting until the new year is a bad option because I do have to get a
new crown because of the crack on the crown on #8, and they said they
would have to do #9 too or it wouldn't match. Is that right? Can they
not match one crown to another? Because those two crowns are going to
eat up my insurance for 2007.


I thought you said you only had $450 in coverage left for this year. Assuming your insurance pays at least 50% of the charges for the root canal, that alone will eat up your remaining benefit for this year.
Generally if both 8 and 9 have been crowned years ago and one needs to be redone, you will indeed get a much better result if they are both redone--esp. if they are done simultaneously.


Are there any downfalls to this? I feel like they are killing a
perfectly good tooth just because of a cavity. Are there any risks to
this procedure?

Which tooth are you talking about here?

You say after the anesthesia the whole procedure should be pain free,
and then possibly some soreness afterwards? Just checking - I think I
can live with that.

That is the most likely scenario.


Also, why would I need a crown? Is the price you quoted with or without
a crown?

The tooth (#31) is almost certainly fairly broken down to require a root canal. In the course of doing the root canal, the tooth will be hollowed out further. For this reason, the remaining tooth structure above the gumline is severely weakened after a root canal--and this is a tooth that takes major chewing forces. Fillings don't hold up well long-term, and often the teeth fracture. The tooth should receive either a crown or an onlay that covers the cusps of the tooth.



Also, I'm going to be speaking publicly the 21st, 22nd, and 23rd -
Thursday through Saturday. If I get this done on the morning of the
19th, am I going to able to speak, or should I put it off until the
26th or 27th?


If you are referring to the root canal treatment, it is very unlikely to be a significant problem, but I cannot promise you that there will be no residual soreness on these days.

Steve



--
Mark & Steven Bornfeld DDS
http://www.dentaltwins.com
Brooklyn, NY
718-258-5001
.

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