in march of this year i chipped my front top tooth of course i was crying and freaking out so i made the first appointment i could get with a NEW dentist the same day they put a filling but said they had to also do a root-canal since it was a big chip that hit the nerve but yet i told them i was in no pain just looked bad! He insisted that i need a root-canal to solve the problem so i went ahead and had a root-canal and filling done that day. It never felt the same after that a month later under my nose was very tender so i went back this was the 3rd time and he said some root-canals just don’t work so he was nice and gave me half of my money $600 and referred me to a endodontist he told me he need to go in and do another root-canal but he had better equipment and said the first dentist didn’t get a micro canal because only he has the equipment. This was done last month $1200!!! I went yesterday for my crown with MY NORMAL dentist and he said he couldn’t put it on because it wasn’t healing and that if he put it on it would have to come out and he would just be taking my money! So i went back today to the endodontist and he said he now has to do a surgical cut on the gum for $1300! then i would have to go to my dentist and get my crown and build up for 1100! I’m so lost I’ve spent so much on this tooth should i just get a bridge?
Dentist here. Welcome to the SDMB. Sorry things aren’t going well. Usually a RCT on front tooth that is due to trauma v. decay is one of the easiest to do and the most successful. Can’t say why yours would be such a problem.
The cutting the gums the endodontist wants to do is an apicoectomy. They expose the tip of the root and clean it out and fill it. This give a great seal preventing infection in the tooth, which I am assuming is the “not healing properly”
Saving the tooth v. extraction is sometimes a tough call. Cost difference of course and saving the tooth means working on only one tooth. A bridge means cutting the teeth on either side which now means three teeth are involved not just one.
Normally if the cost is similar I greatly lean towards saving the tooth.
Agreed rsat3acr, but at what cost? (Which appears to be a concern. Please advise, if possible). I have great health insurance (Cigna) but the dental, quite frankly, sucks. Why is this? Do tell, please.
Advice? Wait until winter, and take a week off, and fly to some nice sunny place in Mexico or South America, and pay a quarter of the estimated costs to a competent dentist who cares more about dentistry and professional integrity than about money. Cheaper in the long run, and you will get a nice vacation into the bargain. Any US consulate in any country has a list of recommended practitioners that have been used and trusted by ex-pats.
I wouldn’t get a bridge for my upper front tooth again. They don’t last forever, are very expensive and they destroy the supporting teeth. I don’t dare even bite with my second bridge to replace the front tooth, because they’re already telling me it’s loose and I’ve only had it a few years to replace one I had 20 years because I got decay in the supporting teeth. And it cost over three thousand dollars. Not to mention your gums will recede on the supporting teeth, continually. If I had it to do over, I’d just get a flipper. Cheap and easily replaceable. I can barely bite with the damned bridge anyway. Just my humble opinion and the voice of long experience.
143amanda, have they considered a root fracture? I think in 28 years I’ve seen maybe two root canal failures that were done by endodontists on teeth due to trauma. Half your money was $600? That is expensive. We don’t charge $600 for an anterior RCT, and we are about average. Might get a second opinion. If you’d like to PM me, I’m in Texas and you never know, I may know someone where you are.
As jtur88 says Mexico could be an option since you are in Texas. In a thread a couple of days ago I mentioned this. In Mexico you want to go where the better of Mexicans go not to the people right across who cater to Americans who want the cheapest work. It was the Yikes I’m having a tooth pulled thread if someone wants to be kind and link it for me. I don’t know how and trying to learn in the middle of this post probably won’t work.
Thanks for all your opinions. A little more detail about myself im 28 and i live near the corpus christi tx area. I’m really thinking of getting a bridge or a flipper but i need to go to my normal dentist on Monday and discuss the cost of each. ive already spent about 3000 on this ONE tooth counting antibiotic (clindamycin 300mg) that cost me $55 and i had them prescribed twice and xrays! I’m not in pain it just doesn’t feel normal and under my right side of my nose feels a little tender but not even enough pain to need advil. But they told me if i dont get this taken care of i can one day wake up with the right side of my face swollen and it can go to my right eye that this could happen over night and i would have to then be rushed to the ER! So ofcourse im very scared!
My husband wants me to get the surgical procedure done by Dr Bonner as soon as possible but i don’t want to pay for another procedure that cost $1300 and might not work they told me its about 80% chance it would work and then i would still need the build up and crown. I have to still buy my kids there school clothes and supplies and try to take them to a waterpark before school starts again and i feel bad spending so much money on myself!
I think (without knowing all the detail etc) an 80% chance is probably a low number. Anterior apicoectomies are very successful. I’ve had two, 42 and 38 years ago, still have both teeth.
Since you are not in pain I’d say for sure get another opinion since you have time and it is a big decision treatment wise and cost wise.
