Question:
I've been having trouble sleeping, getting tired easily as well as
burning effects and headaches on the right side of my head for the past
5 years. After different kinds of investigations with no results, I
started suspecting some of my teeth. I've had a 5 unit bridge over
teeth #2 to #6 that was placed in 1998 with #5 and #4 missing.
At times when the burning sensations were getting more intense I would
grab the bridge with
my fingers and apply force as if I was trying to pull it out. I guess
this way I was releasing the
pressure on the tips of the roots somehow and guess what, the burning
sensation would
dissapear in a few seconds. Same with headache, it would go away in
just a few seconds.
The bridge and root canals were done back home in eastern europe so
quality might have
been an issue. I went to my dentist here in US very determined to do
something about
these bridged teeth. X-rays showed that the root canals were poorely
done and he sent me to
an endo.The endodontist spent 3hours (no exageration) to open up just
one root in #3.
She started with #3 since it showed the worst on x-ray. She had really
hard time removing some kind of red material from my root, she said she
dealt with it before on another eastern european patient. She gave up
on the other two roots.
A month later - no improvement. So I went back to my general dentist
and we scheduled a removal of #3 and #2. After they were removed I felt
an improvement right away. I still have #6
in my head and I feel the burning sensation is focused around its area.
If I do the same exericise by trying to pull the crown left from the
bridge on it out I feel an immediate relieve, so I think I'm going to
insist on removing #6 as well.
Answer:
Please understand my frustration. I've had all sorts of problems with
my health and
pulling out two molars helped me feel much better. Then I read all this
crap about
root canals and how bacteria is traped there permanently and potentialy
transported
to other parts of the body. I think it's natural for me to relate this
sytemic explanation
to my case. Endodontists will says my root canals were poorly done and
I won't discard
that posibility, but can anyone say for sure that a root canal that
looks perfect on x-ray
won't cause any damage at all? There is still bacteria there. What if
the material itself
used to fill the root is not compatible/safe with everyone.
It's not my intention to start a flame here. I'm just trying to get
some opinions about
dental implants. Spcificaly, If a poorly done root canal-ed tooth has
been identified as
the cause of some health problems and has been pulled and all the
symthoms cleared,
what is the likelyhood that an implant won't bring back the old
symthoms?
The two endodontists I saw told me they generaly recomend to hold on to
the natural
teeth even if they are root canaled and leave the implants as a last
resort option.
Dental implants on the other hand are clean, there is no bacteria
involved. Provided
it osseointegrates without problems won't it be a healthier solution
the root canal?
Is the high cost of a dental implant the main reason why the root canal
is the prefered
way to deal with compromised teeth?
And last, I would be curious to see what people think about this
chinese theory of
tooth to organ relation and if any dentists ever considered it in their
dental treatment.
There are risks in implants, of course. There is no medical/surgical
procedure that is without risks.
One of the risks is bacterial infection. The risk of bacterial
infection in implants is small but real. Most of these infections will
become apparent rather quickly however.
There is no way to avoid bacteria in the mouth. Furthermore, anything
that passes the gums has the potential for putting bacteria into the
mouth. This includes both endodontically-treated teeth, implants, and
otherwise healthy teeth that have NOT had root canal treatment. The
magnitude of the bacterial risk is substantially greater in the presence
of periodontal disease, and the connection between perio disease and
other somatic ailments is gradually becoming better documented. The
only way to avoid this however is to have all natural teeth extracted,
and I don't think there are any ethical dentists ready to make this
general recommendation.
Please understand that the thinking on this is subject to change, and
that in fact it has changed over the years. To give one example, it was
until the past 20 years or so a pretty routine recommendation to have
all patients getting radiation therapy to the head and neck to have all
remaining teeth extracted, at least in the path of the radiation beam.
This is no longer a routine recommendation, but the rationale for this
recommendation was based on fact.
There are other medical factors that may affect recommendations about
dental care. One that has recently become better known is the danger of
surgery of the jaws to anyone receiving certain drugs of the
bisphosphonate class. These patients (mostly patients with metastatic
cancer) are definitely cautioned against any surgery of the jaws,
including extractions or the placement of implants.
