I’m just wondering if any one knows the answer to this. If a tooth becomes infected, can it ever be treated with antibiotics and then repaired with a filling? Or does an infected tooth always lead to a root canal? Thanks for the info!
From personal experience, yes it can.
But the odds are very much against this. I’ve had 3 teeth with this problem and with 2 of them, yep, hadda have the root canal.
One of them, though, was what my dentist called “borderline.” It had a badly deteriorated filling and he was not sure if the nerve was involved or not. In either case, I needed a crown. So, for the 2 weeks while waiting for said crown, I was told to carefully note sensitivities to heat/cold and so on. I got antibiotic pills to take thru one week.
We did not have to do the root canal, but it was a close thing.
Now, to opinion: What I THINK was going on was the infection from the filling may not have invlved the actual nerve, or if so, it was in the very first stages. My impression is that if the nerve is really involved with the infection, it’s a goner and the root canal is necessary, and in most cases, by the time it’s noticed, the nerve is really involved.
Caveat here is this is what I think I understood from the endodontist’s explanatin to me. YMMAPWV: Your Mileage May, And Probably Will, Vary.
The reason why antibiotics aren’t the panacea to dental infections like they usually are for other bodily infections is that the pulp (and its subsequent canals) of a tooth has a very limited communication with the bloodstream and the rest of the body (and therefore access to your immune system).
Thanks for the answers. Pretty much confirms what I thought. 
In hopes of cheering you up, root canals these days are not generally painful. They used to be, because they are destroying the nerve and a swig of whiskey was not enough to numb the pain. These days they can numb the whole thing up and you don’t feel a thing usually. (My second root canal was somewhat painful for a bit, because the infection was so bad the anesthetic could not reach the entire nerve. 10 second of drilling so he could put it directly on the nerve and I didn’t feel anything the rest of the procedure. Nothing to it really.)
This pretty much describes why they still hurt if the antibiotic doesn’t clear up the infection first. The bacterial infection causes an acid buildup, which pretty much neutralizes the anesthetic. As gatorman says, the limited communication also prevents the acid/bacteria from leaving the local area, which is why the infected tooth tends to hurt and then not hurt and then hurt again later. On the other hand, it lets you know that the tooth needs attention, so it’s probably a good thing.
This is a little embarrassing to ask, but… what is a root canal anyway? I’ve heard the term, of course, and know that it fixes bad teeth. But I’ve never had any cavities, so I’ve never needed to know more. The term is a very odd one.
It’s tooth and nerve murder. Drill in through the tooth, kill the nerve, pack the hole, put on a crown. You’ll never feel pain in the tooth again, but the tooth is also dead and becomes fragile – hence the need for a crown rather than a filling.
In other words, you’re drilling a canal through the tooth in order to get to the root to kill it. That makes sense (though I stand by my statement that it’s an odd term. 
)
Thanks!
ETA: I’m not sure I want to know why Google decided to put a Fix Circumcision ad at the bottom of this thread.
They don’t always do a crown. I had one done maybe ten years ago, and they filled it and said if it went dark they’d crown it for cosmetic reasons. It hasn’t to date.
Crowns are done for all back teeth (behind canines) and may also be done for front teeth, it depends on how much tooth structure is left after all decay is removed (at least the standard of care is such).
A root canal is more then simply “killing” the nerve, the tooth is anesthetized, all decay is removed, the pulp and the nerve of the tooth are removed, the now empty middle part of the tooth is disinfected and a replacement rubber-based paste is placed in the canal space (gutta percha).
also depending on which tooth you can have upto 4 roots. front teeth and canines have 1 root, molars have 4.
there is a hunk of nerve in the middle of the tooth that branches into the root through a canal. one root, one branch, one canal. four roots, four branches, four canals.
Seriously? Like they used to make golf balls out of?
[Johnny Carson]I did not know that.[/Johnny Carson]
I did not know that, neither!