So I just had a root canal and it used up my dental insurance for the year. I know that they say you HAVE to have a crown after root canal because it weakens the tooth. The question is: how soon? Can I most likely wait until November when my dental insurance renews itself and will pay for half or is it likely the tooth will crack and I will be screwed. I know that each situation is different. I am simply asking about probablities. Can I most likely get away with waiting?
My guess is no, because the adjoining teeth will shift in an undesirable way. But only your dentist can tell you for certain.
That’s a long time to wait. They’ve already presumably packed and filled the tooth. If that’s all they’ve done, it’s not very sturdy. Have they made you a provisional crown? You may be able to slip by.
My wife’s last crown was covered by insurance, but I saw the invoice anyway. Them suckers are expensive, even at your 50%!
Is your insurance completely used up, or will it still cover dental emergencies (such as if the tooth fractures while waiting for the crown)?
There’s always the liquid diet until November.
Or, what does your dentist advise?
I had a root canal done at the beginning of last year. The dentist said I’d need to “keep an eye on it”, but it wouldn’t need a crown unless there were any further problems. That was 14 months ago, and it’s been fine so far. Hopefully I won’t need a crown at all, or at least not until I’m a little richer.
No provisional crown. Just packed and filled the tooth. He said to wait about a month to get the crown, so it is going to be at risk for at least that long. I get the impression that the problem is the packing cracking rather than the tooth. If that is the case then I could just go and get the crown if that happened. Or are we talking about the tooth itself cracking. I know that a crack below the gumline is bad news indeed.
I had a cheap metal/temp crown attached until I could go back when my insurance renewed for the year. It was a couple of months.
See if they can accomodate you. My dentist always trys to work around the constraints.
The tin crown wasn’t bad.
I’m in the same situation, kinda. I’m waiting for my insurance to approve the crown. I was told that because the root canal cuts off the blood supply to that particular tooth it will become brittle over time and the possibility of it cracking in half goes up. (my old filling cracking in half was what led to the root canal)
I wish I knew ahead of time that the root canal and crown were going to be separate charges, I might’ve elected to have the tooth pulled.
My story: I lost most of a tooth some several year ago. Never had a cavity in my life, then one just went south. Had a root canal. Got a crown. Dentist said I had very little root left to attach it to. And the crown probably wouldn’t lasted for more than a year or so. Lasted for 5 years.Then it gave out. At work, of course. I couldn’t remove it, I couldn’d close my mouth. Drank soup for a week.
Had it removed. Have had a big hole in my head since. But I don’t have dental at the moment and I just can’t find a reason to spend $2000 on what comes down to a cosmetic procedure (which is barely that, it’s where you can’t see it.) Big deal. Never had a problem with it. Still eat. That’s what they’re there for right?
I think you can wait. Personally.
When I had root canals and crowns, the doc said nothing about loss of strength. He said the tooth, without its nerve and blood vessels, would turn very dark. That, he said, was why the crown was needed.
The structure (pulp, etc) internal to the tooth that is removed for a root canal keeps the tooth pliable and less brittle.
Look, it is like everything else: Not getting a crown means the ‘‘brittle’’ tooth is more prone to cracking, but it does not gaurantee that it will crack, so everyone chiming in with their anecdtol evidence is not helping the cause. 'See, mine didn’t crack, so you’ll be okay." or “yeah, it gave way, and now I have a gaping hole, but it’s swell”
Jeesh - for max protection of your tooth, make sure you get a crown and be careful in the interim.
http://www.webmd.com/content/article/103/107129.htm?z=4263_107123_2275_in_25
long-term, crownless, root-canaled tooth bad. it will eventually break down.
if it does it into the bone like one of mine once did, VERY BAD indeed. not going into TMI no matter how much you ask. 
the less pretty metal crown is better than none at all. actaully, i’ve had one on a rear molar for years. decent dentists will work with you if funds are tight.
IANAD, but am presently going through the same process. My understanding is that another reason for having at least a temporary crown is that, otherwise, the tooth will rise/descend from its socket, making placement of the permanent crown more difficult, perhaps even impossible.
Obviously this is not dental advice. Merely pointing out another issue/question to raise with your dentist.
Although a tooth after a root canal is eventually weakened, there’s no need to rush into getting a crown. I had my first root canal around 1973. The tooth didn’t need a crown until 1987.
Two things can eventually happen with a weakened tooth: it can break, or it can split. If it breaks, it can be crowned. If it splits, you loose the tooth. Neither of these things is going to happen right away, though. You can safely wait for a few years.
The teeth will definately shift without a crown. But that said, Twice I had to wait for crowns. Once I waited 9 months the other time over a year (about 13 months) for insurance reasojns. Both times I had temporary crowns put on TWICE. But that was in 1997 and 1998 and the teeth are holding up today. Conversely I had a root canal on another tooth and after a year the crown fell out and the root canal failed and I had to have it pulled. So you never really know with root canals. If you have to have more than one or two, often times it’s better to stop and consider overall, because where I am a root canal costs about $1,500 (sans insurance) so that’s a lot of money to pay to have it fail in a year.
Yup. Just had that demonstrated the hard way last week - pulled off a crown together with most of the tooth chewing on toffee. That tooth had a root canal about 12 years or so ago.
been there, done that, except it was a live tooth and a tootsie roll that yanked most of that aformentioned rear molar out. to be fair, it was heavily drilled and filled from a previous cavity, so it was weakened to begin with.
not to alarm you, but do yourself a favor and have your tooth very carefully x-rayed. not only did i have to have a root canal, i had to go to a special type of oral surgeon two months later and bone removed from around the tooth. when it was yanked out, the torque put a hairline crack in my jaw nobody spotted, and the bone around it eventually got badly infected.
not an experience you want to have, believe me. 
I know anecdotes are no way to make medical decisions, but who can resist sharing? See, I’m in a similar situation too, sort of (one begins to wonder how many of us post-root-canal, no-crown types are out there).
I recently had a root canal on a back molar (12-year molar in my case since I have no wisdom teeth). I’ve had root canals before without minding much, but this was the most horrific piece of dentistry I’ve even been subjected too. My mouth is very small, the molar was way in the back, and the dentist and his assistants were clearly not used to working in such a confined space.
So, I get the root canal done, and a temporary crown is installed but falls off a couple days later at a restaurant. I call the dentist, who says no problem – I can last a few days until the real crown comes in.
I have the real crown put in, and about a week later it falls out too. So I go back to the dentist (an act I am thoroughly sick of at this point, as you can imagine) and he puts it in a second time.
Since both the temporary and permanent crown have fallen out, I’m beginning to detect a pattern, so I ask “if this crown falls off AGAIN, do I have to come back and have it put on again?”
After all, it is the last molar in the back; unless the teeth are going to shift, I’m not sure I care. I’ve always hated those back teeth anyway, it is never seemed like there is enough room in my mouth for them. It’s almost impossible to keep them brushed well because I can’t get a toothbrush back there (I have to use a child’s toothbrush).
The dentist laugh and said no, it was not necessary to have the crown put on again, but it would reduce the chewing ability of that tooth “by 70 percent.” (Where do they get these statistics?)
You know where this is going - the crown fell out, AGAIN.
I have no plans to go back to that dentist. This summer when I am back in the US I’ll have an American dentist take a look, just to be on the safe side. (Though actually Egyptian dentistry is pretty good, as far as I can tell.) But for now, I’m crownless and happy about it.
The ADA and the majority of dentists say that crowns are placed over root canals to strengthen the tooth and prevent infection. Most regard them as particularly important for molars, which are subject to greater stress from chewing. If the structural integrity of the tooth is not in question (because it’s in the front, or because there’s quite a lot of it left), a crown may be unnecessary. If the tooth is especially weak, a post might be needed.
Bear in mind, though, that the filling material placed by the endodontist is often a temporary material, meant to be replaced after a few days have passed and the root canal has been deemed a success. The permanent filling is often placed by your regular dentist, who may also do your crown.
I find it very unlikely that shifting is a big problem after a properly done root canal – from the pictures I’ve seen, most of the tooth is still present below the gumline, and crowns are supposed to stay above the gumline. Nothing I’ve read suggests that shifting is a common concern after root canal.
Root canal does NOT cut off the blood supply to the tooth. Teeth have an interior and an exterior blood supply, and if your gums and bones are healthy, the exterior supply is adequate to keep the tooth alive (yes, it’s still alive after root canal).
http://www.dentistry.uiowa.edu/public/oral/saving%20teeth.html
http://www.ada.org/public/topics/root_canal_faq.asp
http://www.locateadoc.com/articles.cfm/35/1180
http://www.dentalfind.com/Root_Canal_Crown/
Also, many dentists have their own excellent websites (and some ain’t so good, but what can you do?)