First of all what is a root canal? It is a treatment made by an endodontist that removes the pulp like center of a tooth essentially killing the nerves and then this space is filled with a substance called Gutta-percha and then a crown covers the tooth and everything is just like it was when the tooth was normal.
That is basically the concept behind a root canal, I am no expert so maybe my explanation is not as good as it should be, the part that is left out when the doctor tells you to have the root canal done is that basically you are left with a dead tooth in your mouth.
And therein lies the problem, from personal experience I can assure you that things are not as rosy as the expert wants you to believe, I had a root canal done to my last molar, supposedly the tooth is left without nerves so you cannot feel anything, yet about five months after my root canal the molar started hurting me, and a few weeks later it had a bad smell. So I started reading up on it and decided I didn't want a dead tooth in my mouth so I visited another dentist and had the piece extracted. It happens the tooth was rotten, on the inside it was completely black and as the dentist was extracting it, it broke into a lot of little pieces and he wasn't even able to take them all out, they eventually floated to the surface, but it was a bad experience.
I understand the Endodontist who did the job on my molar made mistakes and my molar was the price, but that has had me wary of having another of these type of work done on my teeth. Unfortunately I recently had a problem with another molar and one of my front teeth, the dentist told me the only way to save them was with a root canal, now apart from the thing being very expensive, even down here in Honduras, I am afraid I will have the same problem as last time.
So now I really don't know if I should have the root canal done or just extract the teeth. I could always put in some denture I guess, but I am also thinking I could give the root canal another chance. Does anyone here on Steemit have an opinion about this?