I am very glad to hear that your sister is feeling a bit better. However, her situation is unfortunately typical of a patient being conviced that a root canal is going to render her tooth healthy and give her 50 or so years of stability. I'm afraid that information is completely false.

She has not been informed properly about saving (??) this severely infected tooth. A root canal will NOT rid this tooth of infection because there is no way to remove all of the infected nerve material in the tooth because many of the canals that harbor these nerves are microscopic. Therefore they are not accessible with any instrument, laser or antibiotic. Her tooth will remain infected and it will be a chronic source of pain and infection that will eventually affect other areas of her body.

It is not surprising that her dentist did not mention to her that the term "save" in dentistry means to "retain". It does not mean to "cure". There is a big difference between retain and cure.

Based on what you have posted here about the severe swelling, the pain, the IV antibiotics..... there is no doubt that your sister's health will be in jeopardy if she "retains" this infected tooth for any length of time.

I urge you to let your sister read this post before she resigns to allowing anyone to root canal this tooth. Here are a couple of reputable websites that offer valid information about how root canaled teeth pose a threat to the patients overall health.......

http://www.mercola.com/article/denta...oot_canals.htm

http://www.healingdaily.com/exercise/root-canals.htm

I cannot stress enough that her infection is severe and the tooth is the source of that infection. I have seen countless people (in my 30 years in the dental profession) in her exact same situation and the only CURE every time was to remove the source of infection........ the tooth.

kMontana.......... please think about what I am saying here and please help her to become better informed so she can make her own wise decision of what is really best for her.

Please keep us posted on how she is doing....

I truly wish her all the best :-)

Bryanna






Bryanna,

A week later now, and things are now nearly back to normal for my sis. The swelling has finally gone down and she again looks 'normal'. She spent three days going to the ER for continued IV of antibiotics, every 8 hours. And, a variety of pain medications were making her quite ill, so the experience was definitely not a pleasant one. She finally was prescribed some pain meds by a local dentist and those helped after she returned home for good.

She is scheduled to have the treatments on the tooth this Thursday. If I'm not mistaken it will be a root canal and crown, so save the tooth, which they're saying is certainly attainable. More expensive than pulling it entirely, but why not save it if you've got 50-60 years of chewing ahead of you? : )

Anyway, a good ending to a scary story. Just wanted to give you an update. Thanks again.

- kelly[/QUOTE]