How many times can a root filling be redone?

[Emma J]

Hi

Three years ago I had a fall on a night out in the town and broke my front tooth in half. The dentist advised and did a root canal along with a tooth cap on that tooth in order to save the tooth.

Everything was OK for a year and then the tooth started to hurt again and the dentist said that the tooth will need another root canal as the first attempt had failed and so I had the previous root canal redone.

Last year, again the tooth started to hurt when I put my teeth together and I was sent to a root canal specialist who said that I would be better off to have an Implant but I did not wish to have my tooth removed, so I went for having another root canal filling instead.

Unfortunately over the last couple of days, the tooth has started to hurt again and I am worried that I will have to have the root canal redone again for the fourth time.

So far, this tooth has cost me a fortune and is just not getting better. But I dont want to lose the tooth because its my front tooth. I would like to know, how many times can a root filling be redone and if I have it removed now, could I have a tooth implant straight away?

[Dr Mohsen J. Esfahani]

In theory there is no limit to how many times you can redo a root canal but in practice there comes a point probably round about now in your case where you have to say, is there much point in redoing the root canal. If the root canal has been done well by a specialist and it has still failed there could be other reasons why it has failed such as root fracture,... If you have infection underneath this root then you cant have a dental implant straight away and should wait 6-8 weeks before having an implant.