Hi Bryanna,
Im new to Neurotalk and have read several of your replies here. Im so impressed with your professionalism, knowledge, and kindness.
I've had a low grade infection in a tooth that had a root canal (upper front molar/left side for about 3 years and have decided to get it extracted. I went to a dentist through denti-cal (which means I would get the extraction done at no cost) and he took X-rays on that side of my mouth since the gums around the 3 teeth next to the root canaled tooth were somewhat inflamed. He told me that there was some deeper pockets around the root canaled tooth, but that their were a couple of cavities in the teeth near it, but they didn't appear infected. He said that the X-ray showed the root canal tip may be infected but he wasn't sure. We set up an appointment for this tooth to be removed in 2 1/2 weeks and he didn't put me on antibiotics since he didnt see any swelling /obvious abscess. I asked him if he did the extraction protocol and if he would be removing the ligament along with removing any infected bone around it. He said he would remove as much ligament as he could and do a "scraping " of the area, but said that if they didn't get all of the ligament, it wouldn't be an issue since the body would heal the infection. He also said any infected bone would also heal on its own when the cells would turnover. He didn't mention anything about drilling any bone away, just "scraping".
Now, my question is: Should I try to go to an oral surgeon instead of him? Or does he sound like he would do it the right way? Also, do all oral surgeons remove the ligament, root tip and surrounding bone automatically, or do only holistic oral surgeons make sure to do that? PS. He did say that the bone around that tooth had reversed quite a bit compared to the teeth next to it. He said it may be due to a low grade infection or that the bone loss could be due to the other molar behind it was removed. He also said that if there had been a low grade infection in the bone, there would have been much more bone loss.
I appreciate any advice you have to give. Thanks!