Hello. I have a RC done 5 years ago and today I went to the dentist because I've been having some minor pain. The x-ray shows that there is infection under the RC so I was sent to a RC specialist. She suggested to remove the tooth which also has cavity, and get an implant. My question is: is this really the only solution? There's no way to save the tooth? Since I will be traveling the next few weeks, i wonder how long can I wait to extract the tooth? Thanks!

I am not a dental professional nor do I work in dentistry; however you may want to read the thread I started, so many questions following an extraction.

This all began with a tooth that had a root canal and became infected underneath.

Hi Littlegirl,

I am in the dental field and I can answer your question.

Every tooth contains countless microscopic canals that contain nerve tissue. Because there is no access to these canals, these nerves continue to be infected even after the tooth has had root canal therapy. Therefore, there is no procedure to actually "save" or "cure" an infected tooth to make that tooth healthy again. Root canal procedures are done to allow a person to "retain" an unhealthy tooth, not "cure" the infection. Eventually the infection from the small canals proliferates from the tooth into the jaw bone. The infection that was seen on the xray is not limited to just below this tooth... it is within the tooth and has spread into the jaw bone.

It is important for you to know that pain is not a clear indicator of how severe a dental problem can be. Most dental problems start to hurt after the problem has already progressed.

It is ideal to remove this tooth as soon as possible because there has been an infection brewing for at least 5 years irrelevant of whether you had symptoms prior to recently or not. No one can predict if this tooth will remain slightly symptomatic for awhile longer or suddenly become swollen and painful.

If you will be traveling to an area that does not have the best dental care... it could pose a problem if it flared up. Also, infection can be very draining on your immune system so you could become ill.

Your dentist mentioned replacing this tooth with a dental implant. You could have the tooth removed now and place the implant at a later time ideally within 6-9 months from the extraction.

Sorry to deliver this news to you
When you do decide to have it removed, it would be best to see an oral surgeon for the extraction rather than a general dentist as oral surgeons routinely deal with the removal of infected teeth and are better equipped to handle that.

Wish you all the best.
Bryanna