 Hello everybody, Andrew and Liasca here with dental L mobile hygiene. So in this video I want to talk to you guys about why would you want to save the tooth with a root canal or Why would you want to pull out the tooth instead? So those two things may seem very obvious you either want to save the to turn or not But there's a big cost difference. So typically people say, okay, well if it's gonna cost me $70 to take the tooth out and I'll be out of pain or I'll do a Root canal that may or may not work for $800 for the root canal plus a crown on top of that after everything You might be up to $1,200, you know depending on the tooth and depending on the amount of work that needs to be done So for a lot of people it may seem like a no-brainer if it's a back tooth especially To have the tooth taken out because it's $70 versus $1,200 Well, let me tell you why or why not you would want to pick one option over another Okay, so just a little background story. So this is actually coming from somebody who I know She's been in a lot of pain. I think for at least a couple weeks now She went to her dentist because she was pretty sure that she was clenching her teeth at night She was pretty sure she has a night guard, but it's a pretty old one I think she can't even remember How old it is so a while So right away. I said you need a new night guard made because it sounds like to me you are clenching at night She's pretty sure that she is she wakes up in the morning her whole mouth You know area is just sore. She was in so much pain that she even went to Urgent care the other night and said like you need to do something, you know, I'm in so much pain You know that would be horrible and they pretty much gave her some heavy-duty painkillers because her muscles We're now going into spasm. So that's obviously the worst-case scenario Not everybody who clenches their teeth at night Has that issue, you know, but if you're doing it so much for so long without a night guard That can happen and it does cause a lot of pain because what a night guard does is it helps to keep your jaw in a more Relaxed position. So you are still clenching but not nearly as much not as hard And you could even stop that all together over time, but it depends on how early you get the night guard So anyways, so she unfortunately doesn't live near me So I don't typically like to diagnose anything over, you know over the phone over text messaging anything But you know, she had questions and she kind of wanted to know what to go from there She pretty much said well, I saw the dentist. He kind of just said, oh, well, you know, we'll keep an eye on it You know, she felt that he didn't really listen to her. I'm not I'm not a dentist by any means But I have 14 years experience and I've seen almost anything So I felt that I could offer her some words of advice So I said you need to get a night guard made as soon as possible because if you don't this is just going to get worse And you will be in a lot of pain You don't want to constantly be taking painkillers painkillers painkillers Well, lo and behold. Oh, and I forgot to mention I did tell her to and and watch out For a tooth to abscess. So she kind of said, well, how do I know if the tooth is going to abscess? So everybody knows what a pimple looks like, you know, it's it's red with a white center You know, that's what a pimple looks like. Well, if you ever see that inside the mouth, you know over here Down here Sorry, but that's where it is If you ever see that inside the mouth near a tooth It could be an abscess even if it's there and then the next day It's not it will probably come back just because it's there and then it disappears It doesn't mean that the abscess is not still there. So I told her to watch out for that in this morning She sends me a message and says guess what I have an abscess because I see exactly what you told me to look out for She went to another dentist right away and the dentist said the same thing So the options are when you have an abscess there are a number of options depending on what type of Abscess you have and how long it's been there. Okay? And it can happen from clenching. It can happen from if you had such a large cavity You had left it alone. It got bigger and now it's into the nerve It could happen if you have a chip tooth and then you just kind of leave it alone Food bacteria gets inside that you know hole from that chip tooth gets into the nerve causes an abscess So there are a number of different ways to get an abscess But those are just kind of the more common ones. So with her it was probably the clenching at night and she couldn't even shipped a little bit of a piece of tooth off and then you know, as I said food Bacteria gets in there Causes an abscess. So there are different options for an abscess depending on the type of abscess that is present The first one is you would go on antibiotics to get rid of that infection and then that's it Everything's fine. That is an option Not usually it's usually worse than that, but that is like the best case scenario you go on Antibiotics and that's it The next one is if you go on antibiotics, but the abscess is still there or it comes back You you need to go on the antibiotics again to get rid of the abscess And then the dentist needs to give you a root canal to clean out the nerve because the nerve has been Infected it can't heal itself at that point. So that could happen But a root canal you guys is not a bad thing people always hear these you know horrible things about a root canal But it's not a bad thing. All we are doing is simply cleaning out the nerve Putting a composite over top of that to kind of seal up the the tooth They make it look like a normal tooth again, you know, easy, you know easy And that's it But the thing about a root canal tooth is that once the nerve is not there nerves in our teeth have a Wide variety of you know nerve tissue, you know blood supply. So that is what pretty much What's the word I'm looking for and that is what gives the tooth life So once that's gone the tooth is not strong anymore. It's quite weak So that is why after a root canal it is a good idea to put a crown over top You don't have to that's always an option But the thing about not putting a crown over top of a root canal tooth is that it can easily Chip again if the tooth chips below the gum line We can't put anything on top of it because there's nothing to put on top So if it chips below the gum line, then that tooth isn't usable anymore So then the dentist has to go in there to take out those tooth pieces that are left Take out the root and then you have a hole there anyway So you just spent all of this money on a root canal without putting a crown on it You could end up losing the tooth anyway So the best thing is to do the root canal put a crown on over top to protect the whole thing You'll never have to worry again in a perfect world, right? You will never have to worry again The next option is which is always an option is to have the tooth taken out instead of a root canal because you can't leave A tooth that is obsessed. That's infection. That's going through your whole body So you will become sick very very sick over time if you leave it there So you can't so that's the last option is to take the tooth out It's a lot cheaper, but then think about it. You have a missing tooth Even if it's a back tooth you have a missing tooth and you can't leave that space there because then teeth shift They shift move you're in more pain The teeth don't look so nice after that and it's just not a nice thing to have plus imagine having this hole You know in your mouth You're not used to that. It doesn't matter how young or how old you are You're not used to that and once the hole is there. Well, the hole is there You can't just bring the tooth back. There are other options to fill up that hole, but it's not your natural tooth You could have a partial a partial denture. You could have a bridge You know, so it's just better to keep that tooth Okay, so you always have options, but I should mention to the other option is you could just leave everything alone But then the abscess will keep coming back You will have to keep on going on antibiotics or you will be really really sick So not really the nicest topic the nicest video for you guys But that is a very common question after I tell a patient they have an abscess I give them the options and they go, okay, wait a minute So it costs this much to have the tooth out but this much to do the root canal I'm taking the tooth out then I kind of sit down with them explain the pros and cons. Well, there's no Positive to having the tooth out to be honest But it does get them out of pain So I talk about the positives I talk about the negatives and then they go, oh see I didn't even think about all of that Once we take the tooth out you can't say oh shoot. I kind of want the tooth back again That's just not an option, right? So I Hope that helps if you guys have any questions Let me know again not the nicest video ever But when I was talking to her it gave me a good Topic for one of the videos that I like to do to just kind of help patients make a better dental decision So thank you guys so much for watching if you've had any questions Please let me know and have a good with today today. Have a good Thursday. Enjoy this crazy snow Have a nice day you guys. Bye