Facing a root canal or extraction

Hi. I was recently referred to a dentist by my physician due to
swelling of my right cheek and pain in the root area of my upper right
1st molar. She also wrote a script for Augmentin, which I have been
taking for a couple of days now. On my first visit to the dentist
yesterday, he found a cavity in the tooth as well as a fine fracture
extending into the root; he believes the latter trauma is due to hard
biting or bruxism. (I was grinding my teeth in my sleep quite a bit
last month, according to my girlfriend). He said the infection is in
its early stages, i.e., little or no pus despite inflammation of the
gum around the tooth.

The dentist performed a pulpotomy, filled the tooth with something
that looks like white caulk and instructed me to come back in a week
for a followup. He says that since the fracture is fine, it may be
possible to save the tooth with RCT depending on how it responds to
pulpotomy in the interim. Otherwise, it must be extracted.

My question is, which of the two procedures is less likely to give me
problems in the long term? I've read some dire warnings on some dental
practices' websites about extraction releasing more bacteria into the
bloodstream. But if you'll forgive my cynicism, I can't help but
wonder if there isn't some self-interest involved here since RCT is a
more expensive procedure than extraction. A friend of mine (non-
dentist, administrative staff) who works at another dental practice
tells me that in the case of a fracture, they usually pull the tooth.
She was surprised when I told her that the dentist thinks it might be
a candidate for RCT.

My main concern is my overall health, with cosmetics a distant second.
Since this is a molar, it's not really visible from the front anyway.

.

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