Guides
Save or Extract
Whether a tooth can be saved is decided by the root and the bone around it, not by how much it hurts.
Save or Extract
- Apexification: Can a Dead Immature Tooth Be Saved?If a young tooth's nerve dies before its root is formed, MTA apexification or regenerative treatment is done. Differences, sessions, success, colour, follow-up.
- Apicoectomy: Root-End Surgery, Success Rates and RisksWho an apicoectomy (root-end surgery) is for, how it is done, success at 1, 5 and 10 years, how it compares with retreatment and implants, healing and risks.
- Failed Root Canal Treatment: What Are Your Options?Why root canal treatment fails, whether the tooth can still be saved, and when extraction and an implant come in. Three options and how to decide.
- Save the Tooth, or Extract It and Have an Implant?Save the tooth, or extract it for an implant? The six criteria behind the decision, savable versus worth saving, and the cost of putting it off.
- How Long Should You Wait for an Implant After an Extraction?In the same session, a few weeks later or months later. The three timings, when each one is chosen and what waiting does to the bone.
- Knocked Out Tooth: What to Do in the First MinutesIf a tooth comes out completely, minutes decide: how to hold it, keep it in milk and put it back, and what to do about breaks, looseness and colour change.
- Tooth Decay: Stages, Symptoms and TreatmentDecay starts as a white spot and hurts once it reaches the nerve. When fluoride is enough, when a filling, root canal or extraction is needed; child vs adult.
- Do Teeth Repair Themselves? Can Decay Reverse?Enamel does not grow back, but an early lesion can be stopped. Where remineralisation stops, how bone differs, and where tooth regrowth research stands.
- My Gum Disease Has Advanced: Will I Lose My Teeth?Gingivitis versus periodontitis, how pocket depth and bone loss decide which teeth stay, where treatment halts the disease, and planning implants.
- Inlays and Onlays: Between a Filling and a CrownWhen is an inlay, onlay or overlay chosen instead of a filling or a crown? Ceramic vs composite, 5- and 10-year results from research, and the risks.
- Can a Root-Filled Tooth Make You Ill? The EvidenceCan a root-filled tooth cause heart disease, cancer or rheumatism? The origins of the focal infection theory, what studies found and where the real risk lies.
- Root Canal Retreatment: When and How Successful Is It?Why root canal treatment is redone, how it is done, its success rate, and how it compares with root-end surgery or extraction. Key findings and questions.
- My Tooth Has Broken: Can It Still Be Saved?Where it breaks decides the outcome: enamel breaks take a filling, breaks below the gum or vertical root fractures mean extraction. Keeping the broken piece.
- Root Perforation During Root Canal TreatmentWas the root perforated during root canal treatment? Why perforations happen, success of MTA repair, the factors that decide the outcome and when to extract.
- Decay Under a Bridge or a Loose Bridge: What Can Be Done?A loose or smelly bridge usually means the supporting tooth: worn cement, decay under the crown or bone loss. How to tell them apart, and the options.
- Pulp Capping: Avoiding Root Canal Treatment in Deep DecayWhat direct and indirect pulp capping are, and whether they can prevent root canal treatment in deep decay. Success rates, MTA vs calcium hydroxide, limits.
- Post and Core After Root Canal: Fibre Posts, Post CrownsA post does not strengthen the tooth; it holds the core. Fibre vs cast posts, why the ferrule is decisive, root fracture risk and when extraction comes up.
- My Tooth Is Loose: Can It Be Saved or Must It Come Out?Why a tooth becomes loose, when it can be saved, what splinting and gum treatment do, and when extraction is right. The criteria and your options.
- Told All Your Teeth Need to Come Out: What Happens Now?The questions to ask after hearing these words, how to tell whether the decision is really right, and how your mouth should be planned after the extractions.