Hi Harrerej,

You are correct in that to re treat these teeth with root canal therapy or apicoectomies (surgical root canals) you are throwing your money away. First of all as you may have read here many times..... there is no way to "cure" an infected tooth because there is no access to the tiny canals that contain infected nerve tissue. So root canaled teeth remain infected for hte life of the tooth. Secondly, these teeth were severely traumatized in the accident to the point where the nerves were damaged and died off. This is an irreversible condition. Thirdly, there is a strong likelihood that these teeth are fractured which does not always show up on x-rays. Again, there is no procedure that can make a fractured tooth healthy again.

The large lump on both your palate and gum area above these teeth indicates a large infection in the jawbone. These areas of infection will not go away so long as the teeth are present because the teeth will be chronically infected.

Regarding the idea of losing these teeth.....the most important issue you need to understand is that the longer you hold onto them the more the infection will spread into your sinus and quite possibly beyond. Most people don't realize that their brain is only about 4 inches from their upper teeth and it is not protected from infections in the teeth. Also the replacement of those teeth becomes much more complicated as those areas of infection in the bone continue to deteriorate the fragile bone leaving nothing in it's place.

The inevitable is that you are going to lose all of those teeth and possibly more if the infection spreads to the adjacent bone. It does not make any sense to remove one or two of them because they are all infected and carry the same risks. It is up to you to decide if you want to continue risking your jawbone and your health by hanging onto them.

Replacement options at this point will depend on how much healthy bone is left after those teeth are removed. But again, the longer you put the inevitable off, the more complicated your case becomes.

I'm sorry to deliver this bad news to you but your case is not unusual. What drives the dentists to re treating these teeth has nothing to do with curing the problem.... it is the patient saying.... but I don't want to lose my teeth. He knows you will eventually lose them and the bone in the process but if you are willing to pay to put a useless bandaid on this situation... he's not going to turn that down.

I suggest you google this to learn the health risks with root canaled teeth...
dr mercola how a root canal can affect your health

Please keep us posted on how you're doing.
Bryanna