Crown/Root canal question

[aroundteeth]

Hello,

I've been having pain/swelling on a tooth the past few days that has a crown. This also happened about 5 months ago but after I saw the dentist (who recommended a root canal) the pain subsided so I put it off. I had the crown put on about a year and half ago. I don't remember the reason but apparently I had a cavity and too much of the tooth was gone to fill. My question is, should the dentist have done the root canal back then before he did the crown? The reason I ask is because now I'm going to have to get rid of a perfectly new crown (well, it wasn't perfect, I still had pain sometimes when eating hard foods) and now have to buy a new one. Thoughts?

Thanks

 

[Dr David Lee]

Hi aroundteeth,

Sorry to hear about your situation. Let me see if I can shine some light on it based on the information that you gave me.

When there is a large cavity, we have to remove the cavity before proceeding with restoring the tooth with either a filling or a crown (for bigger cavities). At the time of removing the cavity, we may not see the pulp (nerve) of the tooth exposed, which is a good sign. However, it is possible for a root canal to be necessary in the future, since the cavity was NEAR the nerve. This could happen at any time, and is unpredictable.

If the cavity is close to the nerve, you could preemptively do a root canal, but most people would opt to not do this and take their chances.

Most of the time, a root canal can be performed through the crown, and the access hole can be filled with a filling. Therefore, a new crown is often not necessary.

Hope that helps and answers your question!