Exposed filing of old root canal tooth
 

This is very long and I wish it weren't. Sorry.

About 5 or 6 years ago I had a root canal done on a molar close to my wisdom teeth. Long story short, we had to seek out an endodontist to get the rest of the job done when the first dentist couldn't. Had it done with a post.

From there I was sent to see someone about a crown for it. I was told my wisdom teeth were coming in impacted and would need to have them removed before I could have a crown placed. It took about two years from the root canal for the extraction to be done.

I was ready for my crown when my new dentist told me my root canal tooth was likely too short to place a crown on and I'd probably require a gum specialist to slice away enough to expose more tooth/bone and to make a crown possible or simply evaluate if it was worth it at all. The scheduling was set so far apart (over 6 months) that in that time, 1/3 of my root canal tooth broke off, leaving the filling they put in there exposed.

That happened last year. I had immediately saw my dentist on an emergency visit to have it assessed and after she patched it up with temporary filling around the root canal filing, she assured me it would be fine until I was seen by the gum specialist. In another 6 months.

That temp filing surrounding my exposed filling broke again sometime during that wait.

I was seen by her assistants who wouldn't patch it and claimed I should just wait to see the gum specialist. That the tooth wasn't going to get infected as there was already a filing in there, so not to worry. My appointment was pushed back even further in that time and now this "tooth" (there's literally only about 1 third of it left) is beginning to bother me. It's hardly pain, but I'm quite aware of how much it has eroded and left more of that ancient root canal filling exposed.

This has been a tremendous mess and I feel like I've been juggled around a lot between different procedures and dentists and delays. I'm scared it's infected now, shocked it hadn't gotten infected long before this. I'm off my father's plan now that I'm employed - anything I do now has to be out of pocket until my own dental takes effect in May. I'm scared to wait. Is it worth saving this shell of a tooth for a crown that as I've been advised will be constantly falling off due to it's shortness, or should I just rip the whole pest out? I'm sorry for the long post. Thank you if you've even read this far.