[mmecurie]

Hello! I am another one of those people who seem to get incompetent dentists. I recently had to have a tooth pulled because the dentist didn't mention I had a small cavity & one year later when I went back it was a huge cavity at the bone level which apparently couldn't be saved (I went to an endodontist to determine this). In any event, this dentist I'm going to mentioned a post in a crowned tooth (done 25+ yrs ago) is coming out of the side of the root! Said dentist didn't mention doing anything about this - just that it should be hurting! Do dental posts shift position in time & what can I do about this? I'm already missing two back teeth - I so hope this one doesn't have to be extracted too! Thanks so much! Arabella

[Bryanna]

Hi Arabella,

Posts are put into teeth that have been root canaled for retention purposes because the root canal procedure kills the tooth making it more fragile. Posts are also put in root canaled teeth when decay has destroyed a lot of tooth structure as the post gives the crown something to be cemented to.

There are many problems with posts but the one that is easiest to understand is simply that teeth are not meant to have stiff metal posts inside of them. So cracks and fractures develop throughout the tooth. The fact that the post is coming out of the side of the tooth indicates that either the post was put in that way in the first place and just never picked up on an xray (or it was picked up and you were not informed about it because you didn't mention having pain) or the tooth decayed through the root from the bacteria that continues to live inside of your tooth in spite of the root canal. Bacteria lives in all root canaled teeth making them susceptible to one infection after another.

Just because this tooth is not hurting you does not mean that this is a good situation. There is bacteria growing in the jaw bone where this post is and it will show signs of the infection sooner than later. It is ideal to have this tooth removed before the bacteria spreads as you really have no idea how long it has been this way.

Some dentists will not remove these teeth until the patient is swollen and in a lot of pain because the patient tells them to wait. From a health stand point that is not wise.

Perhaps you could speak to your dentist about having a removable partial denture to replace this tooth and any others you are missing in that arch.
That would give you something to chew with and would help keep your other teeth from shifting.

I hope this information is helpful. All the best to you.
Bryanna

Originally Posted by mmecurie

Hello! I am another one of those people who seem to get incompetent dentists. I recently had to have a tooth pulled because the dentist didn't mention I had a small cavity & one year later when I went back it was a huge cavity at the bone level which apparently couldn't be saved (I went to an endodontist to determine this). In any event, this dentist I'm going to mentioned a post in a crowned tooth (done 25+ yrs ago) is coming out of the side of the root! Said dentist didn't mention doing anything about this - just that it should be hurting! Do dental posts shift position in time & what can I do about this? I'm already missing two back teeth - I so hope this one doesn't have to be extracted too! Thanks so much! Arabella