Root canal due to infection
 

Hi,

When I want for my dental checkup in January, I hadn't been for a year (my fault, I moved and hadn't thought of having my checkup!) but I had no issues, other than mysterious white 'spots' appearing above my teeth in a certain area (near my incisors, little further back). One would disappear, then a few days/weeks later another one would pop up. They looked like the below:
*edit*

They weren't painful, just looked very unsightly. When my dentist saw these at my checkup, she gave me an x-ray and said there is a massive infection above my tooth and she was shocked that I haven't had any trauma to the area as that's what it looked like. She then performed a root canal on the tooth, and put cotton wool in the tooth to absorb the infection. I had the cotton wool in (with a temporary filling keeping it) for 2 weeks, went back and the infection was still present so could not complete the root canal.

I've now gone back 3 more times for her to try to finish it however the infection is still present - she said she's never seen anything like this before and arranged me to see a more senior dentist.

I'm a bit worried about this as the tooth is quite near the front and I don't want to lose it, but I'm also worried about infection being present in other teeth which may cause me to lose them too.

Has anyone seen this before? Any advice?

Thanks!

She might have missed a root canal, i would go to an actual endodontist and have them look at the tooth. When a root left has not been treated it can keep he infection in the tooth. Bryanna can give you better insight then me but from what i read missed roots can stay infection.

Hi guidedbylights,

The problem is that a root canal cannot cure the infection residing inside of the tooth. The procedure can only remove the infected nerve tissue that is visible and/or felt with the instruments. Along with that the microscopic canals are not accessible and will continue to harbor infected nerve tissue irrelevant of what is done to the tooth.

The white spots above the tooth that kept reappearing may have been fistulas. These occur when the bacteria proliferates from the tooth into the jaw bone. There is no dental procedure that can cure this infection. The only way to remove the infection is to remove the source which is the tooth.

The cotton pellet that you wrote about the dentist leaving inside of the tooth to "absorb the infection"..... that cotton pellet was drenched in a chemical to kill off some of the bacteria. Most often that pellet is soaked in formocresol or something very similar. These chemicals are highly toxic and cannot be removed or washed away from the inside of the tooth. They are permanently there making the tooth not only infected but highly toxic.

The probability of the infection and toxicity of this tooth spreading beyond the tooth are highly likely. [QUOTE=guidedbylights;1065384]Hi,

The only option to cure problem is to remove the tooth. It would be wise to speak to your general dentist about your replacement options.

I'm sorry if you have not be informed of this information before now. Your dentist should have explained all of this to you and offered you the option of removing this tooth prior to doing the root canal.