Root Canal Or Dental Implant Treatment?

By R.S. Mayberry, DDS

Dental implant treatment has become the most successful tooth replacement treatments available today, yet many dentists unfamiliar or unsure of this treatment option do not recommend it to patients. Root canal treatment has been commonly done to save natural teeth for more than 60 years, but not without potential complications, no matter who performs the treatment.

Today, close to 90 percent of the teeth I replace with dental implants have been previously treated with root canal therapy. Sometimes these canalled teeth will go problem free for decades, but other teeth don't and become re-infected in a much shorter time. When a root canalled tooth becomes re-infected, two options for treatment are another root canal, or extraction and replacement with a dental implant.

I have personally stopped recommending root canal treatment for patients that have already experienced that option, invested money in it, only to have the tooth become re-infected and have to be removed. I have had patients in the past that spent tens of thousands of dollars attempting to save a natural tooth over the course of many years with root canal and similar treatments, only to have the tooth end up being removed.

If a dental implant had been used to replace the failing tooth initially, they would have saved the thousands of dollars spent pursuing a treatment goal that would eventually fail.

Nevertheless, patients must be part of the decision making process and be included in the decision on what should be done, after being given enough information to make a proper and informed decision. As a general dentist I still perform root canal

treatment for patients who choose that option.

Dental implants are the most long lasting tooth replacement option available. Implants are stronger than natural teeth, they do not decay like natural teeth, they do not become infected like teeth that have had root canals. Dental implants they can be used to replace one or all natural teeth, and they can look just as beautiful as natural teeth, sometimes better.