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Root Canal vs Tooth Extraction, which one is better?

Factually speaking, these two are completely different treatments, but can cross paths now and then leading to a dilemma on what is best. To know which one is best, you first need to know what these both treatments are, what they do and for what level of tooth decay they are advised.

What is a Root Canal?

Imagine you have a small cavity. It only hurts when you eat or drink. You have gone to the dentist and have gotten a filling done for that. Very good.

But what happens when you don’t catch this cavity in the starting stage? What if you neglect and leave it be for a long time? It spreads deeper into the teeth damaging the layers of the tooth and spreading to the main pulp/nerve part of the tooth. Now this is where you feel unbearable pain, sometimes even radiating to your ears or neck, throughout the day.

To treat this, we have to remove the whole infected part of the tooth. It involves making an entry point into the tooth to visualise all the canals of the tooth, clearing up the infection using multiple steps, removing the infected pulp and cleaning the canals on a deeper level. The canals are then restored with a strong filling material which holds the tooth in place. We follow up this procedure by placing a crown on the tooth to bring back the masticatory strength of the tooth.

You can see that in this procedure, we are removing the infection but still saving the tooth. The tooth is intact in the jaw, in the dental arch and will remain functioning.

What is tooth extraction?

Now let’s say this decay or infection has spread too deep into your tooth or jaw and made your tooth very weak. Or maybe a huge part of your tooth is broken. Or your tooth has become mobile due to gum diseases or diabetes.

In such cases we cannot save the tooth no matter how hard we try. There is a point of prognosis. Once your tooth crosses the point and becomes diagnosed as a ‘poor prognosis’, tooth, extraction is the only option.

Extraction of a tooth must and should be followed by a replacement, be it in the form of a dental bridge or an implant. Because if the space is left open for a long time, the adjacent teeth and the opposite teeth will try to move into the space and disrupt up your whole bite or teeth functionality.

Conclusion

Root canal treatment is a procedure to be done in cases of
  • Deep Dental Decay/Caries
  • Tooth infection causing pain
  • Where the tooth still has enough structure to be saved
  • In cases where your dentist advices an intentional root canal for the benefit of the adjacent teeth, etc,
Extraction is advised in instances where
  • The infection has eaten away at more than half of your tooth and there is no proper structure present in the mouth anymore
  • The tooth is mobile/loose due to gum diseases
  • The tooth has broken at the crown
  • The tooth has a fracture in its root part, etc,

Speaking from a complete dental health point of view, it is always best to save your natural teeth in its arch.

But how would you know which treatment is best for you? Well Consult our dental experts now for a custom and most importantly – minimally invasive, conservative treatment plan.