Originally Posted by Bryanna

Angels31,

You are welcome.

If tooth #15 is root canaled, then irrelevant of what shows on an xray, the tooth is infected. When the bacteria in the dentin tubules proliferate beyond the tooth and seeps into the bone, that is when the infection shows up radio graphically. Until that proliferation, the tooth can appear "normal" on an xray.

With that said, in all probability tooth #15 is contributing to the on going infection and may have even infected the graft material. It may behoove you to have the graft removed from the #14 site when 15 is extracted to be certain of eliminating the major sources of the infection. Please discuss that with the oral surgeon in detail. Let him know you are concerned about dealing with further infection and how that would affect your over all health.

FYI... the oral surgeon knows that root canaled teeth are unhealthy but he has to be careful how he discusses this subject and cautious of what he recommends to patients as he does not want to stand in opposition of his colleagues who make a very good living at doing root canals. So it's best for the patient to bring up the subject and voice their health concerns pertaining to infected teeth as in that way he can speak more informatively about the systemic consequences.

Keep us posted.
Bryanna