Can I just leave it alone? Pain is now very minor. It is twenty years old and has a crown. My general dentist wants to extract the tooth. I then went to an Endodontist who didn't even bother to open my mouth to look at my tooth. Instead he looked at his 3D x-rays and told me that I have a cracked root that's causing infection in the bone. The infection is eroding the bone causing some bone loss. He said to extract it. My tooth has not bothered me as it has before; maybe it's because the nerves are dead. But why is the pain on and off?
I went for a dental checkup and the doctor concluded that I had gingivitis, and around my dental crown, my top left molar, I had a pocket of 5 mm, with bone loss around a half a mm to a mm. There is a foul smell around my crown, and the dentist gave me some kind of medicine under my gums to heal them. I had another dentist look at my crown and he said that it was completely solid, with no signs of decay or the cement being loosened, or no points of entry, so he ruled out the crown as being the smell.
During 3 weeks after the crown procedure, I had severe gum inflammation and had antibiotic treatment. One month later I went to another dentist who told me that the crown margin is too deep into the gum which is still irritating the gum and referred me for crown lengthening. The periodontist thinks the crown shouldn't have those pointy parts, which traps food and may cause loss of bone in long-term. She recommended to extract the wisdom teeth (pushing on the crown) and redo the crown.
I am getting retreated for root canal after a year because the previous dentist failed to do it correctly which led to an infection and significant bone loss (2.5 mm). I've gotten two different opinions and one mentions having to wait 8 months to add the permanent crown because it is necessary to wait till the infection goes away while the other says it's a 3 week procedure.