Providing excellence in endodontic care (root canals) in Meriden and Stratford, Connecticut.

Serving central and southern Connecticut - Ansonia, Beacon Falls, Berlin, Bethany, Branford, Bridgeport, Bristol, Cheshire, Cromwell, Danbury, Derby, Durham, East Haven, Easton, Fairfield, Hamden, Meriden, Middlefield, Middletown, Milford, Monroe, Naugatuck, New Haven, Newtown, North Branford, North Haven, Norwalk, Orange, Oxford, Plainville, Prospect, Rocky Hill, Seymour, Shelton, Southington, Stratford, Trumbull, Wallingford, Waterbury, West Haven, Weston, Westport, Wolcott, Woodbridge  and more.

In almost every case where root canal therapy is indicated, an alternative treatment option is to extract the tooth. Although extraction can be used instead of root canal therapy to eliminate sources of pain, infection or disease in your mouth, there is one big drawback to this approach:
You won’t have your tooth!

Your natural teeth play important roles in helping maintain your health, well-being, and happiness. We strongly believe that, unless a predictable long-term result cannot be achieved, saving your natural tooth through endodontic treatment (root canal therapy) should always be the first choice for the best health and cosmetic results.

Chewing Function

When it comes to chewing, our teeth work in pairs - one top and one bottom tooth. For the purpose of chewing, losing one tooth really means losing the function of one pair of teeth. This can significantly impact your ability to effectively chew your food and to enjoy eating the types of food you want. Losing multiple teeth can effect chewing ability enough to lead to problems with proper nutrition.

Esthetics (Appearance)

Missing teeth can greatly affect your appearance, especially when the tooth is visible within your smile. Anyone missing even a single tooth knows how much it can impact their self-esteem and confidence. Loss of multiple posterior teeth can cause the collapse of your bite, resulting in the appearance of “hollow” cheeks, a shrunken face, and increased wrinkling of the face.

Speech

Your teeth play a vital role in helping you to form sounds and to speak clearly. Losing teeth can significantly impact your ability to communicate effectively and to be understood.

Protecting Other teeth

Your teeth work together as a team to perform chewing functions and to distribute forces across a broad area. When you lose teeth, there are fewer remaining teeth to share the burden of absorbing the tremendous forces generated by your jaw muscles. Increased forces placed on your remaining teeth can increase the likelihood of tooth fracture and other problems which can accelerate the loss of additional teeth.

Maintaining Spacing and Alignment

Teeth support each other and keep each other in place. If you lose a tooth, adjacent teeth will “lean” and “drift” into the empty space and opposing teeth can supra-erupt (pop-up) into that space. The end result is that the alignment and chewing function of your remaining teeth can be significantly compromised. The space left by the lost tooth, and the additional spacing created when remaining teeth drift, create problematic areas that can collect food and debris when you eat. Additionally, crooked and misaligned teeth are often harder to keep clean and become more prone to decay and periodontal disease.

Cost of Time and Money

Post-operative discomfort and recovery time for root canal therapy are often much less than for tooth extraction. Most of our patients return to work (or other normal daily activities) immediately after their procedure and don’t have to sacrifice significant time or possible lost wages.

Although there are options for replacing a tooth if it is not saved, the cost of extraction plus a denture, bridge or implant is typically higher than the cost of endodontic treatment that could save the tooth for years to come. In the long run, keeping your tooth will save you both time and money.

Keeping Your Options Open

When you decide to save your tooth, the likelihood of long term success is usually very high. Should the treatment eventually fail, you will always still have the option of removing the tooth and following with a suitable replacement. If you opt to skip trying to save your tooth and go directly to removal and replacement, there is always a possibility that the replacement may fail, or you may be unhappy with the look, feel or function of your artificial tooth. If this happens, you may be stuck. Once your natural tooth has been removed, there is no going back.

Nothing Compares to the Real Thing

Modern dentistry has yet to produce a denture, bridge, implant or other form of tooth replacement that looks, feels, and functions as well as your natural tooth.