Broken molar

[Mandy]

Hi

My top molar tooth has recently broken and left me with a gap where food traps when I am eating. I saw my dentist who recommended a root canal and a crown for the broken molar.

He says that the tooth is so badly broken that to hold a crown, he will need to do a root canal and then put a hook inside the root canal space and then anchor the crown on that.

I would like to know if a root canal filling is really necessary for my broken tooth. Could he not use another way to hold the crown in place? Also how long will a root canal filled tooth last?

[Dr Vahid Motahar]

Hi,

Thank you for your question.

It is not possible for me to say whether your tooth can be restored without the need for root canal treatment for your broken molar tooth with clinically assessing your tooth. But in dentistry sometimes may be needed to do elective root canal treatment in order to restore a tooth but it is becoming less and less these days as more advanced form of dentistry becomes available.

The root treated teeth can last for many and in some cases decades without any problem and again these days root canal treatment (RCT) has a good success rate as long as it is done correctly and the recommended post root canal treatment is completed also which would be crowning the tooth after. My suggestion to you would be to come and see us for a second opinion as there has been many cases that we have able to avoid the RCT and restore the tooth successfuly. We maybe able to the same for tooth also