Americans are getting dental implants more than ever — and at costs reaching tens of thousands of dollars. Experts worry some dentists have lost sight of the soul of dentistry: preserving and fixing teeth.
Source: Dentists are pulling healthy and treatable teeth to profit from implants, experts warn – CBS News
I recently had a root canal on a tooth that had a dying nerve, causing continuous pain the tooth and gum.
Around that time, I saw an upsurge in posts on social media saying root canals are wrong – and just lead to a dead tooth – and you should not do that. Some even advocated removing the tooth and getting an implant!
I had a root canal 20 years ago when I had an abscessed tooth – that is, a tooth with an infection inside the tooth. That was the most painful medical condition I have endured – and since it flared up at a holiday, I lay awake for 48 hours before I got to my dentist and had the root canal.
There are social media activists proclaiming root canals are not needed and will result in jaw problems in the future. Some of the advocates, including some dentists, seem to suggest that instead of “killing a tooth and leaving it in place” (the effect of a root canal), you should instead pull the tooth and replace with an (expensive) implant/fake tooth.
I have no idea – but the two root canals I’ve had were very successful, and one has been fine now for more than 20 years.
I also had a cracked wisdom tooth removed in 2022. Upon removal, the tooth had a visible crack down the entire root structure. Some dentists, I was told, would have waited for that to heal and then replaced the now missing tooth with an implant. My dentist mentioned that option but did not recommend it. He said to wait at least a couple of years – but did not recommend then or 2 years later – getting an implant. The procedure is expensive and time consuming, which would have required a bone graft, then a waiting period for that to heal, then insertion of an implant post, with time for that to heal, and then finally, mounting a fake tooth onto the implant post. I seem to be doing just fine without all that work.
