<p>Of course, they always recommend the crown, it is great $$$ and keep on going up considerably. I never put a crown unless the tooth is broke, even when they recommend it. Not with my mouth, I have teeth with root canals without crown for many years, maybe decades. Some of them get discolored, that is another reason. But having my own tooth is a priority to me, I have had many more than 5 root canals, I have lost some teeth and I have 6 implants, all of these were for sure root cananls originally.
The once that are sensitive to chew on are having infection at the tip of the root canal. It may or may not heal. Here is a bit of TMI, so, do not read if you are not up to medical details. My dentist actually showed me how infection looks after he extracted my tooth. Yes, you can say that it is not a tooth, but it is attached to a tooth anyway. Sorry for that. And in regard to a quality of equipment, it is the same everywhere. If they are not up to date with it, they will loose patients, they know that.</p>
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<p>The endodontist doesn’t do crowns - so there’s nothing in it financially for him.</p>
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<p>I’m personally at the stage where I’m fine with artificial body parts, especially if they outperform the natural stuff.</p>
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<p>It’s not particularly good to live with infections - they can shorten your life. I’m in the mode of fixing small problems before they become big problems.</p>
<p>In regard to filing the opposite tooth to clam the nerves, again, it is worthwhile to try. Sometime it works (when you just need to calm down the nerve) and many times it does not (when you actually have infection). I have done it many times. Ask to file the opposite tooth vs the one that hurts, since filing itself has potential of aggrevating the tooth further.</p>
<p>My Dentist office does both root canals and crown and both are huge money. In fact, I have 2 dental coverages, I maxed out last year in my primary. I am close to maxing out almost every year. Cannot schedule cleanning before the end of the year, never know what is next with my teeth. BCE, it does not look like you are having much problems at all in your mouth, you are lucky, very happy for you. I have 8 - 9 fillings done every 6 months in my teens, just bad heredity and unfortuantely my GrandD. got it from me. D. has almost perfect teeth. You got what you got, cannot change it. And X-ray machine will not show every tiniest infection in your mouth, while many other parts of our body might have them also and many go away. They say that even tiny cancers go away and it is NOT a good idea to treat some of it at all.<br>
In addition, some people have much more sensitive teeth and nerves in general. I am very lucky to be the one. To say that one person never had pain with certain procedure does not prove that the next one will not have it, not at all. My dentist also told me that. I probably had many more “dental” lectures in my life than most and many times I do not listen to them. You have to know what you personally need. I never agreed to be out for my implants, I wanted to be fully awake, while my surgeon always insisted on putting me out as everybody else is out. You do what you need to do, and I am much more scared of being out than the surgery when you actually do not feel anything at all because of horsy dosage of shots.</p>
<p>MiamiDAP –</p>
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<p>It sounds like you’re going against the advice of your dentist because you’re trying to save money. That’s your choice to make, but it could be contributing to some of the problems you’re having down the road after you have a root canal.</p>
<p>Like you, I have had “bad” teeth since I was a child. Every premolar and molar has been filled and refilled multiple times.</p>
<p>We have dental insurance but usually end up having to pay about $1000 out of pocket after the root canal and crown. But for me, it’s worth it to be pain and infection free.</p>
<p>I’m back from the oral surgeon with one less tooth and some bone particles packed in. It was much more effort to get out than the other tooth, but he said it went well. He also said there’s no reason to expect more teeth to go bad except sheer bad luck of the draw; never heard in 30 years of doing this that autoimmune disorders can cause these kinds of issues. So I guess that’s good news.</p>
<p>He also said no reason to be concerned about the cruise. Whew. I’m going with my mother, who cruised for years on her own but is no longer comfortable traveling by herself. So out of the goodness of my heart I’m allowing her to take me :D.</p>
<p>Glad to hear all went well, Marilyn. Enjoy your cruise with your mom.</p>
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<p>I don’t use pain killers when I have dental work done (outside of root
canals) so I can tell whether or not the fit is right when they
install the crown. The typical approach is to use a sheet that shows
where surfaces are hitting against each other but that has
limitations. I find that almost always get the fit right in the same
appointment.</p>
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<p>I usually don’t worry about expenses when it comes to teeth as
problems can compound over time. I replaced all of my amalgam fillings
with porcelain many years ago because I thought that porcelain was
a superior material. The sooner you have dental work done, the more
you can enjoy your teeth, even if they are not original equipment.</p>
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<p>I’ve had a lot of fillings in the past but going to porcelain has
greatly decreased MTBF.</p>
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<p>What is the MTBF of the various kinds of fillings you have had?</p>
<p>The amalgams tend to crack over time, probably on the order of ten years. I think that I’ve had one replacement on the porcelain onlays that was about ten years old. I’ve had to redo a bunch of the amalgams. The porcelain fillings perform much better with respect to heat/cold sensitivity too, and, of course, they look a lot better, and you don’t have the funny metallic taste.</p>
<p>That sounds like the porcelain ones have a higher MTBF, not a lower MTBF, for you.</p>
<p>Hmmm, I have not had to have any amalgam fillings redone, despite them being 25+ years old.</p>
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<p>What many people don’t realize about dental insurance is that when it was originally started in the 1970’s it usually offered $1000 of coverage per year. Forty years later, many of these plans still offer just $1000 per year. If they had adjusted for inflation, it would have offered about $4000 (if not more)but when it is still at the original level, it is essentially and unfortunately lacking. Insurance companies love it because their potential exposure is capped at $1000 per year compared to medical plans when an ER visit can be 10-20 times that.</p>
<p>"It sounds like you’re going against the advice of your dentist because you’re trying to save money. "
- to save my teeth, not money. I have tenths thousands of $$$, (maybe over hundred, not sure), I have successfully saved my teeth until the age when many have removables. Keep in mind that when they put a crown on, they file down most of your tooth. In addition, crown is not a permanent solution at all, eventually it will be either replaced or drilled thru for additional work on this tooth. Been there, done many. Which exactly what has happened with OP. It is much better to have your own tooth, I have several with root canals and not crowned and they seems to be doing betther than crowned ones. It is all in experience. Your dentist will tell you advice based on his general direction/prospective. You have to decide based on specifics of your personal experience. I am just happened to be so unfortunate to have much more experience with the dental work than vast majority.</p>