It is not uncommon for a patient to refuse root canal treatment (RCT) when he or she needs one because of a past RCT that has failed and ended up losing the tooth. I am always disappointed to hear this.
I was taught in my Masters programme that RCT has 70-90% of favourable treatment outcome. Perhaps this patient is one of the few unlucky ones. I will not bore you with the long list of reasons that influence the outcome of RCT, but I just want to emphasize here that if the treatment is carried out under acceptable standard of care, it will usually solve the patient's painful experience due to the dental infection. If the tooth is still restorable, RCT is definitely the better option than removing it. Losing your teeth will also lead to a set of other dental problems later on.
So, to these people who refuse RCT, don't let that just one bad experience influences your decision, give RCT a second chance!
It is also possible to retreat or repeat the RCT on a tooth when the first RCT does not have a favourable outcome.
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