Amanda,

The cotton pellet was put in to prevent debris from getting in the hole. When a tooth is left open that indicates that the infection is very severe. If the tooth were to be closed with a temporary filling or if it closes off from inflammation, you could end up with swelling and pain.

Replacing that cotton is okay as it will serve the same purpose as the cotton pellet did.

It is important that you know that the infection inside of this tooth will never be cured. Did your dentist inform you of this? A root canal procedure is done to attempt to temporarily subside the acute infection. The procedure cannot remove the necrotic infected nerve tissue inside of the many hundreds of microscopic canals that line the interior portion of the tooth. Therefore these canals will retain infected nerve. Sometimes this chronic infection produces symptoms other times it does not. Irrelevant of the symptoms the infection is still present and it can spread to the bone, the adjacent teeth, other areas of the mouth and even become systemic (else where in the body). The way it does this is through the blood vessels in your jaw bone.

Your dentist should have explained this to you and given you the option of removing this tooth. The only way to attempt to cure the infection is to remove the source of the infection which is the tooth.

I offer this information because all too often dentists do not disclose it to the patient and it should always be up to the patient to decide whether or not they feel retaining their tooth is in their best interest.

You can google Dr Mercola, root canals.... Dr George Meinig, root canals... for more information on this topic.

I wish you well.