A piece of my tooth chipped off, I believe it’s a filling. Do I need a root canal or just repair of filling? (Photo)

Hi, thanks for sending your question and xray. Although many teeth can be restored without removing the nerve ( root canal).  It is often the symptoms that make it necessary to perform a root canal procedure. Your tooth may be able to be restored using very conservative techniques. A comprehensive examination would be ideal initially to determine the best approach. We would be happy to see you in our Irvine office for an evaluation. All the best.

Your tooth broke due to the underlying cavity. There is also a cavity on the tooth next to it that requires repair. From only looking at the X-ray, it appears you would need fillings on both of those teeth.The more important question to ask is...why did you get those cavities? These are caused by diet, oral hygiene, and bacteria, and it is important to find the cause and correct that before this becomes a problem everywhere in your mouth. In fact, you should be having a complete examination with a full mouth series of X-rays to evaluate all of your teeth. You may be able to get a handle on this problem soon to avoid further decaying teeth.Good luck!