Root Canal or Extraction?

An abscess forced me to reluctantly visit the dentist. He said I can choose between root canal treatment or extraction.
If I go for extraction the problem is solved forever, it costs less than £180 and it sounds less of an ordeal. The tooth is a premolar which is near the back so I wouldn’t be left with a gappy smile.

If I go for the route canal treatment it’s going to cost a good bit more £440. There’s also a chance the tooth could be a problem in the future and will have to be extracted anyway.
If I’m 100% honest the thought of root canal treatment scares me a little & I’ve heard a few horror stories about the pain involved.

I made a bit of a berk of myself when I had the tooth x ray’d. The dentist told me to bite down on a piece of film but it hurt when I did that as the tooth was sensitive. I didn’t bite down hard enough & after a couple of attempts the dentist lost patience. He gripped the top of my head and my jaw & said “you need to bite down this hard” before pressing up on my jaw & down on my head.
The pain was excruciating and before I knew it I’d leapt out of the dentist’s chair and found myself with a grip of the dentist’s shirt.
I apologised and sat down after the dental hygienist had moped up the glass of mouth wash I’d spilt. To make matters worse once I’d regained my seat the young female dental hygienist gave my forearm a stroke and told me that “I shouldn’t worry because some people just have lower pain thresholds than others”.
I felt a complete Shirley, so obviously I don’t want to make a bigger eejit of myself if root canal truly is painful. They’ve given me a course of antibiotics to reduce the abscess and I now have 7 days to make a decision on extraction or root canal.

Anybody had this choice to make and if so what did they do and how did it go?

Get the tooth taken out.

You can then put it under your pillow and get some of the money back from the Tooth Fairy

tooth out.

My girlfriend had hell with a root canal.Eventually she had it taken out anyway.

I had the same problem a while back - the root canal is not too bad actually, but I had to keep coming back and back as the infection didn't go away and ended up with the bugger taken out anyway - I could have saved a fortune if I'd have had it pulled straight away.

The replies so far demonstrate my initial fear, I cough up £180 for the root canal, it's problematic and then still have to find £440 for the extraction.

The same happened to me but i had root canal the following year i had to have the tooth out anyway, so id def go for extraction first

The replies so far demonstrate my initial fear, I cough up £180 for the root canal, it's problematic and then still have to find £440 for the extraction.

But you said it was £180 for the extraction fella.

The replies so far demonstrate my initial fear, I cough up £180 for the root canal, it's problematic and then still have to find £440 for the extraction.

But you said it was £180 for the extraction fella.

Apologies posted costs the wrong way around, £440 for root canal (inlucdes antibiotics) & £180 for extraction. No cheap answer either way.

But alot cheaper getting it out and the problem solved than having a play about and hoping for the best

I FEEL YOU PAIN.
i had an abcess in a back top tooth, but im terried of dentists so let it go and go until the pain became unberable.
eventually the pain became so back i went to an emergancy dentist, who gave me a root canal. great all done happy days!
next day i woke up like elephant man, hed totally fucked it up, and the infection had spread, my face and side of my head started to swell. into A nd E to have it drained, but no luck. so it was up to a ward and spending 3 nights on a drip for me
eventually when swelling went down tooth was taken out - no pain since (touch wood)

sorry to put a downer on your day

get it sorted asap, have it out would be what id say!!!

Milly I'm told the antibiotics should ensure I don't have a nightmare like yourself, as long as I remember to take them I should be ok (fingers crossed they seem to have taken effect already). The reason I have to wait 7 days is so the tablets can take effect and then when the area is cleared up they can carry out the selected procedure.

Just have it out!!

Sounds like the lesser of two evils! Its cheaper and no chance of the problem coming back and needing to fork out again.

Milly I'm told the antibiotics should ensure I don't have a nightmare like yourself, as long as I remember to take them I should be ok (fingers crossed they seem to have taken effect already). The reason I have to wait 7 days is so the tablets can take effect and then when the area is cleared up they can carry out the selected procedure.

i was told to take tablets to ease swelling and infection. didnt help though.just got worse after some dickhead fucked up the root canal. i imagine its very rare to get as poor treatment as i did, even so whack it, then youl never have a problem with that tooth again

Milly I'm told the antibiotics should ensure I don't have a nightmare like yourself, as long as I remember to take them I should be ok (fingers crossed they seem to have taken effect already). The reason I have to wait 7 days is so the tablets can take effect and then when the area is cleared up they can carry out the selected procedure.

hope it sorts itself out mate, very very unpleasant!

I had a root canal about 4 years ago and to be honest i am glad!!! Any dentist will tell you always try to keep your teeth a lot of Danish girls have commented that so many people in Wales are missing teeth. Try flossing and toothpicks after you eat

I had a root canal about 4 years ago and to be honest i am glad!!! Any dentist will tell you always try to keep your teeth a lot of Danish girls have commented that so many people in Wales are missing teeth. Try flossing and toothpicks after you eat

its at the back though, so no one will notice

Go to Huw Ginn in Talbot Green. Nhs root canal cost me about £180. Superb job, less painful than extraction and a proper job done. No probs since.

And this is from someone who has a massive phobia of the dentist

Guys guys guys, go the the Dental school in the heath hospital, tell them you have no dentist and all your work is done for free

they are looking to take on patients at the moment, so give them a buzz

pm me for any more details

Thanks to all those who offered advice on my dilemma.

I’m afraid I’ve been unable to give the matter much thought as I’m currently struggling with what I assume are the side effects of the antibiotics (Amoxcillin)prescribed by my dentist.

I was travelling home yesterday and out of nowhere the realisation that I was moments away from losing control of my bowels hit me. I raced to the toilet which thankfully was empty and struggled to undo my belt. Before I could remove my trousers I’m afraid the inevitable happened, l soiled the outside of my jeans and my shoes. It resembled something close to slurry & smelled putrid.
I was in the process of making a futile attempt to clean my jeans and shoes with a wet sock when the ticket inspector knocked on the latrine door demanding to see my ticket. I froze for minutes hoping he would go away, however the toilet door was locked which told the ticket inspector that the loo was occupied by either a fare dodger or somebody who required medical attention.

At this point I realised staying silent in the hope that the ticket inspector would go away was the wrong course of action. Best thing to do was to make myself as presentable as possible & show the inspector my ticket whilst opening the door just wide enough to poke my ticket through.
I shouted “just a minute" to the inspector in my most reassuring voice & made a last ditch cleanup effort with my wet sock & then opened the door a fraction.
Sadly a crowd had gathered around the inspector enthralled by the spectacle. They winced collectively at the aroma as I opened the door and handed my ticket over. Without even inspecting the item the inspector nodded and handed it back to me. I shut the toilet door in an instant and stayed locked in there until I reached my station. Thankfully my moped was parked close to the platform and I sprinted there before driving home seated on a copy of Viz to protect the upholstery.
It was without doubt the worst day of my life and sadly not a one off.

This morning I went to switch on the old CRT TV in my bedroom. It doesn’t have a remote so I had to switch it on at the button on the front. I felt absolutely fine and didn’t need to fart let alone take a dump. I switched on the TV and instantaneously soiled myself again. I believe I may have been electrocuted and this could have brought on my loss of bowel control.
Thankfully the damage in this instance was isolated to my underpants which were marked with what I would describe as a “mud butterfly” (if you’ve ever been there you will know just what I mean).

Has anybody else been similarly affected by antibiotics?

So many folk get root canal and then like said, they have to get it ou further down the line.

Get it out, always works for me - only 13 to go, all front ones too

Hi. I had a root canal done in America whilst on holiday a few years back. Thought it was ok as I was insured....or at least I thought I was!! Cost me around $1600 (£1200) and was NOT able to claim much back as it was deemed I could only claim for 'emergency' treatment (or 'patch him up and send him home' treatment) which would have been difficult as I'd only been there a couple of days and had a long time to go....

I have to say that it worked in the beginning and once I was off the medication that went with it I had a bloody good holiday. However, once home it began playing up and I visited my own dentist who said it was not the correct course of action and that in the longer term it would have been easier to take it out....which he promptly did!!

So I suppose my advice is 'bite the bullet' and have it out....it'll happen in the end anyway and it'll save you some dosh to spend on the new 'away' shirt in the club shop!!



"Is the dentist more painful than watch City lose??"