Sorry for long post.

Had a root canal and crown put on the first molar on the left hand side about 4-6 years ago (cannot remember the exact time). I have since moved cities had a long travel, jet-lag and general stress. The dentist at home has previously told me that I do grind my teeth quiet bad.

Two days later, after my first good night of sleep since moving, I had a small intermittent pain on this tooth when biting down - no sensitivity to hot/cold, pain didn't last long, no throbbing, no aching. Even when clenching as hard as I could there was no pain, I didn't think too much of it. Next day I woke up and around lunch time noticed the pain had come back when I was eating, so I decided to make a dental appointment for the next day to a dentist I had never been too.

The next day I go to the dentist, she was nice and listened to me when i talked, took an xray and saw nothing. Tapped around on the tooth and poked around, when she tapped it hurt briefly, again the pain did not last and went away instantly. She said it's best I go to the endodontist as something might be wrong, and I could have an infection etc. She did notice i needed some cavities filled on other teeth.

Since then there has been absolutely no pain. Like I've eaten carrots on that tooth etc and have had zero pain.

Went to the endo he came in listened very briefly, took an xray (was like a 360 xray machine), came back and simply said the tooth was fractured, there was no infection, and I needed an extraction and sorry for the bad news. So I left thinking damn.

Given I was in a new city, girlfriend suggested I go to her uncle who was 45min plane ride away to get it extracted and have the cavities filled. Saw him this morning, again he took his own xrays he poked around did substantial more testing then the original dentist. He said that the xrays showed nothing, the root canal looked really well done and healthy. He said that if it was his tooth he would not get it extracted.

He tried to contact the endo, but couldn't however the endo's office faxed him over the report which he read to me and it said "Fractured tooth , if it hurts AGAIN should call for extraction". They were both confused/perplexed by the word AGAIN, given that a fracture should be removed the tooth should be removed ASAP. So he and his colleague (who he called in to look at the xrays too) agreed that it seemed like the endo is not 100%.

He did however think that could be because of my grinding and it seemed like I might have a slightly high bite. He fixed the high bite slightly, and to be honest I can kind of already notice a slight difference, but that could just be mental. He prescribed me amoxicillin and said if I have the pain again just take that ( to prevent infection I suppose?) and come see him again.

Given I had already paid $2k+ for the RCT and crown I don't really want to get it extracted. At the same time I am **** scared of tooth ache's, not so much going to the dentist itself, but getting a toothache/abscess etc scares the crap out of me. The whole reason I had the RCT was because I waited way to long on a cavity when I was young and I just remember it got infected and the pain was real bad.

I'm just at a loss as for who to believe. I don't have insurance but I'm not overly concerned about the cost, like I said I am more concerned about the pain that could occur with the wait/see approach. I'm a pretty paranoid person and I really can't stop thinking about what IF. I have ANOTHER appointment with an endodontist tomorrow so hopefully they can shed some more light on the issue.

Again, sorry for the long post but thanks for reading (if you do read it!)