Root canal or extraction?

Kate Kestrel said:

can I ask if anyone on here has had the experience of having to make this choice

I have had this choice on 4 occasions - and chose to do root canal and crown each time.

My experience is that the issues around the choice are mostly price and secondly the discomfort,

Price wise I had one lot of root canal work done in the uk (because it was infected) and it cost about £900 for one tooth and it was just filled at the end. Time wise it took about 45 mins.

Pain wise the work didn't hurt in the way you expect drilling to - the injections killed the pain receptors and they could get in there and drill the roots of the molar out. Note that molars can have more than one root and you can pay per root - best to check the price up front so you know what to expect.

The "pain" related issue was having your mouth open for a long time while they work. 45 mins of this got quite uncomfortable, There can be a strange sensation with the upper teeth when they are fishing the nerves out the roots with tiny files as these are going right up in your skull - it doesn't hurt (if it does tell them and they will add anaesthetic) but feels strange.

Where I elected to go for a crown on top it took twice as long and several visits due to the need for shaping the base of the tooth to fit the crown over then the fitting process of the crown. Expect more than one visit but since the nerves of the tooth are gone there is no need for further injections.

I was advised that leaving a void where the tooth was (ie extraction) will lead to the teeth potentially starting to shift towards the space over time and can leave bigger gaps, and more risk of food remaining and causing cavities if you are not strict with brushing / flossing after eating. Maybe that was a sales pitch.

Luckily where I live in Brazil the dental care is a lot better than the UK and prices are a lot lower. I just replaced a big amalgam filling that I've had for over 30 years, had 3 roots canals treated and a crown fitted for abut £600. It took 4 sessions as there was an infection to clear (after the root canal work they pack the roots with antibiotic material for a week then have to re-open the tooth to remove it before closing it up permanently) then they shaped the tooth, test fitted the crown and finally fitted the adjusted crown.

Honestly there was no pain, just the discomfort of someones hands in your mouth and the drilling. You can ask if you can use headphones but the dentist will then need to manually open your mouth wider / move it to the side etc if you can't hear the instructons. That can be a trade off. I tend to put myself into a sort of dissociated state so the discomfort fades away and I can hyperfocus on something I like.

One last word of warning - extractions do come with additional risks - my mother has really deep roots in her teeth and one extraction she had broke some of the structure of her sinuses. That never quite healed properly even after being rushed to hospital for corrective surgery.

Please make sure they have x-rays and talk over the risks with you.

I really hate dentists, we have no NHS ones round here anymore and the last NHS one I had started ok, but then got worse and worse, they removed 3 or 4 teeth and I was never offered crowns or anything. Now they only do private and I wouldn't pay them to do any work on me, all thier really interested in is getting you to have a load of cosmetic work, implants and fillers. 

I know I will have to find a new one eventually, but I know I will put ot off until the last minute, because all I get is a load of hassle, I was actually delisted once for being allergic to latex!

I can relate - I’ve always had huge anxiety about going to the dentist (which is not uncommon of course ). We lost our place at the NHS dentist we were at because we didn’t go often enough during and following the pandemic - I was too scared to go and the other people in my family couldn’t face going back to it after such a long period of not having to. Before that we’d have yearly check ups. I’ve noticed too that there’s a lot more emphasis on cosmetic procedures - they had a form I had to fill in and it had lots of weird yes /no questions on it like “I would like to improve my smile” - I don’t give a toss about how my smile ‘appears’ - I just want health teeth! Dentists are now doing fillers and Botox - why are they wasting time on that when people are struggling to get an nhs dentist? (Of course we know the answer: money). How did your extractions go? Were they not too bad? 

It would certainly be a long way to go to the dentist! My current dentist is an hour and 15 mins drive away and that’s annoying enough. Your great aunt sounds like a fearless woman to have used a knitting needle - wow. 
I’ve never done a long haul flight before - i can certainly relate to your reluctance to do that. It’s kind of mad that people are having to consider going abroad for dental treatment isn’t it? What useless governments we have had - and I bet none of those MPs are using NHS dentistry that’s for sure. I have a cousin who has Private Healthcare and she told me that if she were to call an ambulance a completely different ambulance comes out - not a normal one you and I would use - and that had never crossed my mind. She also had her children in a fancy birth unit in London and there was gourmet food for her and her whole family who visited. It’s just mad how different it is for different people in this country. When I was in labour with my second son we were put in this weird, really dark side room that was almost like a large cupboard and left alone for what felt like hours - my husband had to keep going out to try to find someone - anyone - who could come and help us. It was ridiculous. Bizarrely it had a carpet and was totally unhygienic. We need a revolution! People in this country really need to demand that things are improved because it’s totally unacceptable that basic things like dentistry are unavailable to people. Sorry - rant over! 

It would certainly be a long way to go to the dentist! My current dentist is an hour and 15 mins drive away and that’s annoying enough. Your great aunt sounds like a fearless woman to have used a knitting needle - wow. 
I’ve never done a long haul flight before - i can certainly relate to your reluctance to do that. It’s kind of mad that people are having to consider going abroad for dental treatment isn’t it? What useless governments we have had - and I bet none of those MPs are using NHS dentistry that’s for sure. I have a cousin who has Private Healthcare and she told me that if she were to call an ambulance a completely different ambulance comes out - not a normal one you and I would use - and that had never crossed my mind. She also had her children in a fancy birth unit in London and there was gourmet food for her and her whole family who visited. It’s just mad how different it is for different people in this country. When I was in labour with my second son we were put in this weird, really dark side room that was almost like a large cupboard and left alone for what felt like hours - my husband had to keep going out to try to find someone - anyone - who could come and help us. It was ridiculous. Bizarrely it had a carpet and was totally unhygienic. We need a revolution! People in this country really need to demand that things are improved because it’s totally unacceptable that basic things like dentistry are unavailable to people. Sorry - rant over!