Quote:
Originally Posted by Apex Paul
There is some amount of "opinion" involved in deciding if endodontic treatment is needed. Just today I saw a patient that had a root canal about two years ago (not sure when, I didn't do it), but has a pariapical lesion today on that tooth. I consulted with an endodontist and we agreed that his x-ray that I took today looked better than the x-ray I have of his tooth from 1 year ago. However, we think he should have it retreated because I am taking off his current crown so that I can replace it with a survey crown for a partial denture. Since the crown is going ot be off, we think he should have it done. I left it up to him to decide, because he could risk it and be fine. But, if it gets worse in time he will be getting the endo and another new crown to replace the one I am about to redo!
It certainly looks like you need at least one of those endo/crowned because of the amount of tooth structure that is gone. The others I would have to see in person myself.
By the way, if he were an endodontist, he most likely wouldn't be doing any general dentistry. Why would he waste his time fixing a filling for $120 when in the same amount of time he could be making $700 doing a root canal! There are enough general dentist referring patients to endo's to keep them busy full time doing root canals and apicoectomies, etc.
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What's an apicoectomy? And, what is a periapical lesion if you don't mind me asking? Never heard of either.
Yeh, more than likely it's at least one that needs to get a canal or crown. The thing is that there is no pain whatsoever, I mean I do get it at like certain times for like 5 seconds but then it dies for the rest of the day. Right now I've scheduled an appointment for a checkup and to get my fillings done (at least two days, unfortunately my dentist sucks and doesn't like doing all the fillings in one day but I guess it's about the money). Tomorrow I'm going to get one of those referential things from my dentist's office to an endodontist and hopefully be able to schedule a consultation for wednesday/thursday and he'll be able to tell which of them really needs an endo. Also, do you think that it's possible that he will just say "oh all of them", in order to get more money?
And from what I understood when I called my insurance they will receive the x-rays from the endodontist (I think) and within two days they will have some other dentists look at my x-ray and decide how many root canals I really need.
Kind of sucks, I may not get it done until next week.
Also, if I have no pain do I really need to get the endo done on the ones that aren't close to the pulp chamber? I mean, can I just get those crowned?
What about cleaning when I'll go in for the checkup. Should I let them do it? Seeing the condition of those teeth, is it going to f*** them up even worse?
But do you guys really make that much? Now I'm going to need to invest in a dental office