Originally Posted by Bryanna

Yoba,

I will repost what I had replied to you as this answers all of your questions...

"The truth of the matter is this...... you will never know if that tooth only needed a filling or not. Your dentist was eager to rc the tooth....and get that crown on there..... possibly for the $$$$. The tooth has been traumatized over and over again... it is at least partially non vital. Irrelevant of how many times you root canal a tooth with or without the use of a microscope.... the tooth will remain infected because there is no access to the infected nerve tissue inside of the tiny dentin tubules (microscopic canals). The tooth may or may not temporarily calm down as you take this antibiotic. But it will flare up at some point all over again."

"The only way to prevent the infection from spreading into the jaw bone is to remove the tooth."

If the pain goes away, it does not mean the tooth is okay or healthy. It just means that the antibiotic "temporarily" reduced some of the inflammation and bacteria. But you have a chronic infection irrelevant of taking the medication. Pain and the lack of radio-graphic pathology are not the best indicators for oral infection because the bacteria inside of an infected tooth can easily spread through the tooth into the jaw bone and beyond .... without causing too much discomfort. Why? Because once the bacteria finds a way to drain some of the pressure is relieved from inside of the tooth.... thus little to no pain. However, the problem then becomes much more widespread than when it was contained just within the tooth and that is when that dark area will show on the x-ray. At this point a cone beam scan may or may not show the full extent of the infection. At which point they would just tell you to wait and see what happens.

Given the dental history on this tooth.... yes it may very well be fractured especially if he perforated it with a sharp file. It is definitely infected as I have explained previously. I know this is hard for you to understand but this is not really a question of should you keep the old crown or have them make a new one. The crown issue is no longer the problem and new or old will not make any difference.

Your dentist is putting a band aid on this as he is trying to put off the inevitable which is removing the tooth. The longer he can convince you to go along with this.... the less chance you have of him reimbursing you for the root canal and the crown. I know that sounds horrible and mean ...and I wish that I didn't have to share that with you... but this is the nonsense that occurs in many dental offices every single day.

If you are unsure of the information that I have given you about the infection within this tooth, take some time to do some research and look at evidence of what I am telling you. Google "Dr George Meinig focal infection"... and "Dr Mercola "why you should avoid a root canal".

Bryanna