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Frequently Asked Questions
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I recently visited the only local dentist for an assesment of a tooth that was causing me extreme pain. After a total of about 5 minutes, which simply involved tapping the tooth with the end of the instrument and wriggling it with his finger, the dentist diagnosed me as needing a root canal on my maxillary first premolar. I don't have doubts that this is the treatment I require, but am concerned at his method of assesment. Is it normal practise to diagnose such treatmnet without having an x-ray? I have done a bit of research on this particular tooth and understand that it can have between 1 and 3 roots. My concern is that without the xray, how will I know if the tooth needs one or two root canals?
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Ans:
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your dentist has just given you the diagnosis depending upon your history, signs and symptoms and clinical examination. He has not yet started with the treatment. Though I agree that he should have taken xray before making the diagnosis but before starting the actual treatment he will definately take the xray because without this the Root Canal Treatment is not possible. In the xray one comes to know, not only about number of roots but also the length of roots and extent of decay. He will take pre RCT, one during RCT and one post RCT xray to check the success of RCT.
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