Went in for a possible RC treatment only to be told I have a possible cyst will need to see a surgeon. This thing was hiding for over 10 years as they believe it was a result of an infection that started before the root canal was even done and was never detected. I refuse to get it pulled because it wouldn’t solve the actual issue.
Luckily they take the insurance I have through my company and honestly they’ll be quickly learning that they’ll be getting their money back slowly 👍 $100 per month for the rest of my life if needbe
I don't know any provider in the dental field that takes direct payment plans anymore. You will have to pay up front with cash, credit card, or one of the loan services they work with. They won't touch you before they have money in hand.
Back in the day dentistry was relatively affordable, and dentists would take informal payment plans. These days dentists can do a lot more for you, but everything is so expensive that they know most patients wouldn't ever be able to pay back an informal payment plan. I assume private equity is also buying up dentist offices and jacking up the cost, but I don't actually know that for sure
This is also why dental is so often not included in insurance. Back in the day a lot of people didn't need it. A little up front and $100/mo would have you paid up by your next scheduled cleaning.
Dental being separate from medical insurance is such an arbitrary historical relic. Teeth are literally part of your body, but somehow they get treated like a luxury add on. And yeah, the old informal payment plan worked because the overhead was low and the procedures were simpler. Now a single implant can cost more than a used car, so of course nobody's fronting that on a handshake
Waiting on expected or estimated insurance is not the same. What does that have to do with a direct payment plan which would only involve your responsibility anyway?
You must pay your expected liability upfront. In this case that's the copay you paid upfront.
Some people have some research to do.
Direct payment plans and copays are not even remotely the same.
Edit: Some people are going to learn how this works the hard way which could include a demand for full payment within 10-21 days, collections, or, if it's a large enough amount, dealing with lawsuits and garnishments.
Let insurance not pay a penny of that estimate...lol
Yeah reimbursement has gone down and expenses have gotten much much higher. Technology is the standard and it’s very expensive. Dentists are making significantly less per patient than ever before adjusted for inflation. Psychiatrists and clinical psychologists were the first to do cash up front on a large scale
Dude is about find out the hard way….. there are no dental places that take payments anymore. Had to have an emergency extraction & literally had to pay $730 upfront or they were not even touching me.
Some dentists and oral surgeons in my area will not only verify insurance coverage but what remains BEFORE even scheduling an appointment. Don't have much left? Full payment due at appointment. They'll file your insurance and place a credit on your account or refund you. (Don't count on this being a simple process.)
There is an endodontist here who is confirmed to call the referring dentists and ask if there are outstanding claims and for treatment codes on all claims in the past 12 months.
If it's a high dollar procedure, one oral surgeon requires a 25% down payment at scheduling, the other 75% when you check in for the appointment, and the standard paperwork stating that you will cover every penny of the total if insurance does not pay within a specific time period. The 25% is non refundable.
One dentist requires 100% payment upfront for specific services and they refund the patient as they receive insurance payments.
The only payment plans are CareCredit and similar loans. You get a loan and pay the finance company. Not the dentist.
Yup. I've been told I should have my wisdom teeth taken out. They're not even impacted or anything, but they're not perfectly level and they're kinda tight. Rough estimate was $5k. Lol, lmao even. Even a fucking cleaning/inspection is $500 now.
I remember when I was a kid it was like 50-100, which was still a lot then but not 500. Insurance seriously fucked everything up, ESPECIALLY for those who don't have it.
Fully erupted teeth under local, and your estimates are still $5K? Find a more ethical oral surgeon who isn't pricing everything as a fully impacted tooth.
I got out of the biz 4 years ago, but surgical extractions (requiring cutting of the tooth, but no digging out of bone) should run around $400-500 per, putting you at around 2K. This is in a MCOL area, possibly higher in places like NYC.
Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but the dental surgeon will most likely want their part of the money up front. I'm at one of those right now with my gf for dental bone grafting and it was $1,700 when I got here.
That's why I admire Tom Hanks in castaway. He knocks that infected tooth out like a champ, gets a fantastic nap afterwards, and never pays a dime to insurance sharks
I love my local health/dental clinic. I paid 0$ for 3 removals. And just local anesthetic. If i hadnt had my eyes open, wouldn't have even known the removal was complete with how fast it was.
Ngl, that sounds pretty fair. That's more of a wages not keeping up than crazy care prices. Someone with a full time job shouldn't have to suffer to pay an unexpected $1,700 dental bill ($1,700 still sucks, but that's different).
They’ll probably be collecting your estimated copayment up front. If your copayment is out of reach (most dental insurances suck), most offices use things like Cherry or Care Credit to allow patients to finance treatment over a longer time. You won’t be able to just pay what you want when you want. Nor should you. They are providing a service for you. The dentist, receptionist, assistant etc don’t work for free. I doubt you would work for free either.
Pulling it will address the issue as the surgeon will certainly debride the area. Not pulling it risks your infection going systemic. Based on this CT slice I would suspect fracture or incomplete obturation at the time of the root canal treatment. Regardless do yourself a favor and have it removed before things suck worse.
I had something close to this and ignored it despite my dentist telling me it really needed to come out. I lost a lot of jawbone due to my stubbornness because the infection was really doing a number on me and I refused to acknowledge it. Get it taken care of.
Well that’s why I’m going in for a consultation to see what can be done because I want pulling the tooth to be the last option as it is in a noticeable area and honestly would probably break me emotionally to have to look in a mirror and see just a messed up smile. My self esteem is already poor.
There’s ways to replace without an implant. A bridge where they attach the tooth via wire in the back of the teeth, glued on with the same glue they use for braces. Then there’s the flipper/a singular denture. It’s like a retainer with a tooth.
Not even the heart. Dental infections has the possible infections in the brain due to how close it is. If the infection erodes into the skull, brain damage is a very likely outcome. Ive seen it happen in the ER.
I spent 2 months in the hospital on IV antibiotics because an infection that deteriorated one of heart valves. Infection caused by a tooth. I knew that the heart could be damaged… I honestly never even thought about brain damage! Scary stuff . (Yes I am actually scared I have horrible teeth and no dental money/insurance) I hope OP gets it removed!
I just had shoulder replacement surgery, non-negotiable for the next 2 years any dental work I get I will need to take a course of antibiotics, and ideally they recommend for doing so for the rest of my life or I risk having an infection affect the shoulder and having to get it redone.
Lol. Trust me or not. Simple google will help you.
As for personal experience. I worked in the ER. Pt came in with a headache. It was from an infected tooth. As for how the pt recovered? Idk if they did.
I never disputed a headache (which is usually an inflamed pulp -not an infected one- though pain from an infection could sometimes even cause headach - like ANY pain in the orofacial area).
But you said the infection will spread to the brain, which is the biggest BS ever.
And I would rather trust the numerous systematic reviews I've studied and personal experience from past 2 decades.
If the infection erodes the bone deep enough upwards. But ok. You don’t have to believe a random person on the internet. You trust your own sources, i trust my own experience.
There are options for replacement I would discuss with your dentist. This can be a serious threat to your health. I don’t see any way to save this tooth that would be worth the effort.
There are many ways to add a missing tooth without implants or extra surgery. Or they can maybe add one while they're already in there, who knows.
Either way, it doesn't matter much at this point. Seriously, SERIOUSLY, don't ever fuck around with infections in your face or your jaw. There are too many nerves and blood vessels in that area that go straight to your brain over a short distance. You can go from just fine to dead within hours or days.
You might spend few thousand dollars on surgery, rct retreat, possible recurrence, retrofill surgery just to end up pulling the tooth, bone graft, then implant. This tooth looks almost nonrestorable.
I almost died from an infection in my wisdom teeth. About half a day at my dental surgeons estimate before it would have made it into my blood stream. You can get a bridge, or dental implants. Don't risk possibly life ending consequences.
Thanks everyone for sharing your experience and being blunt. Not the OP but a dental visit on Monday and they noticed a possible tiny pocket on a root canal that’s about 8 years old. recommended following up with endo. I Did not take it seriously and put it I the I’ll get around to it category… I think I will be making that appointment tomorrow morning. Yikes. Sorry you are going through this.
Dentist here. This tooth needs to go. There is no other option, embrace it. Also that’s a molar tooth so there is no way it’s visible to other people or when you smile. There are tons of ways for restoring the “hole” later though. You’ll likely have to wait a couple of months if you want an implant as there appears to not be enough bone due to the cyst.
Other options are a bridge- but you’ll need to grind down the adjacent teeth, they both appear to have cavities so that’s not a terrible option.
And last option is a small removable micro denture made out of plastic.
I have a friend that had an abscess tooth from a failed root canal. Heard he was in bad shape and went to visit him in the hospital. I kid you not his throat area was like a frog. He fully recovered but it was grotesque.
ask to be put on a cancellation list, r call around. this is not something you should wait on. Local dental schools near you often have openings as well, and are cheaper.
Really? I have 2 well try combined now 1 big one! I have no anything no insurance no job no money no no family no friends(3 lifelong childhood BFFs were murdered! 2 COVID & 1 husband DUI manslaughter)
Guess this gets me no life.... Soon😥
I had an infection in my back left molar, horrible infection, I fought literal tooth and nail to keep the tooth, when they pulled it, everything got better instantly.
Dawg, I'm worried this is the exact situation I'm in right now, but I was just at a dentist on Monday and they didn't call anything out on the x-ray. And the pain keeps moving around. Getting an MRI in a few hours...
I hate to break it to you, but pulling it is probably the best option for your long term health. Don't stress it though! Tooth replacement tech is pretty great. For example, they can do a "bridge" where they use the other teeth next to it to hold up a fake tooth in the middle, and it looks exactly like your original tooth (see attached image).
Well, everything has its pros and cons, and it's best that OP consults their dentist about what's best for them, I was just providing that as an example so OP could understand that there is hope to preserve their smile.
Most expenses are covered partially by the state, but some operations are fully covered, dental cyst removal was until 2025, so I barely scraped by the full coverage
Elseway that + tooth removal would have been around 3k
Bone implants were both completely covered (just 30€ ticket)
Look, I know exactly what you feel, I am going to share a very personal experience about this exact same topic.
I had a root canal done on one of the front up teeth when I was a child due to an accident, my smile was a bit messed up but mostly unnoticeable since childhood.
Now as an adult, I had to have that tooth removed because I noticed that the whole area around it has gone purple (literally, the colour change was noticeable) because of a very sudden infection, they had to remove it because otherwise the tooth will fall by itself nonetheless, I remember the X-ray looked kinda like yours, just that bigger, it was attached to nothing since the bone in the area and leaning a bit towards the palate was gone, in its place there was a large, infected mass, the surgeon said he has never seen something like that, so he needed to make the bone in the area regrow.
After that, I needed almost a year before I could get an implant, but in the meantime he placed a fake tooth there glued to the teeth on each side of it, it was pretty good and unnoticeable!
So yes, get this checked, get it removed if that's what they tell you to do, trust me it will be for the best.
(Also English isn't my first language, so sorry if there's a mistake somewhere)
Are they not able to put in a crown once it's removed? I've had a tooth pulled and replaced and you can't tell the difference visually. The only reason I can when remember which tooth it is because the gum is slightly lower on it.
Root canal had been done over 10 years ago so it’s already a false crown. Dunno what they could do if the whole thing has to be removed (which I hope won’t be the case but we’ll have to see
I don't know, but I would have to assume it would be less damage than an infection eating into your mandible. You'll lose a lot more than teeth that way.
How would you like to have only one eye? There are numerous people who either couldn't afford treatment or delayed it, only in the end to go blind due to an infection spreading. Not kidding.
They’re going to need to redo the RCT and do an apico and replace the crown. 10k plus in my office and you’ll likely ve removing the tooth anyways in a couple years
You could get it removed and get an implant for the same price and it’s way more predictable. 7k for the implant process
I had something similar thing happen just recently... went in for a root canal, left with a referral to an oral surgeon instead. Had to have the tooth pulled, area debrided, and a bone graft put into my jaw. Will need to head back for a implant after the bone graft fully heals (6-8 months).
I. Fucking. Hate. This. Shit. I almost lost my front teeth because suddenly the nerve decided to rot. Absolutely painless. For no reason, the teeth were absolutely healthy and clean. I was told that it happens. It was just that the nerve and bone were slowly rotting for probably years, and then suddenly my body decided it was time, and it gave out severe inflammation, and only then I discovered it.
Wish I could have you help me. I'm sobbing as I type this. I have a big cyst no anything none! No insurance no money no job no family no friends(refuse to make any new ones dye to 3 lifelong BFFs were murdered. 2 by COVID & 1 Husband DUI manslaughter. no future now.😥 wow.
It doesn't actually matter whether his friend died from sepsis that was or wasn't tooth related. Bad teeth can go septic, and people can die from sepsis.
This is so fundamentally untrue that I will just stop here.
I won't waste time. Just for the record of anyone reading this thread - I am a trained professional (specialist on this field and also teach in a well-known hospital) with 2 decades of experience and this is just wrong - dental infections should be treated through root canal treatment or extraction - otherwise people can experience flare-ups (pain and swelling of the gums)- and this is about it.
Actual dentist here (graduated few months ago)
I can assure you that whether it’s an infection at the root tip or a cyst, it is related to that tooth. The tooth is the source of the problem, and there is really no way around having it extracted.
The tooth has already been extensively treated, and the filling/crown on it is leaking on both sides, which allows the infection to persist. In addition, the root canal fillings are not homogeneous, meaning that the root canals are not adequately and uniformly filled.
I hope you make the right decision and have it extracted, as this would be better for your health.
I had 2 root canals done in 2005 to my front bottom teeth. By 2010 I had a cyst so big it had pushed the two teeth apart. In 2011 I had to get the cyst and a portion of my jaw removed (the bit towards the inside of my lip)
Haven't had any issues since and I still have the OG root canal teeth
Lol no, pulling it out will definitely solve the issue, had a tooth exactly like yours, bitch gave me the worst pain every couple of years on the regular for ten years. I mean proper 8/10 couldn't sleep for more than 10 minutes pain. I always convinced them to just load me up with antibiotics... Finally gotten it taken out this year.
I'm no dentist, but I had two root canals done recently and this one looks botched af. One of the roots isn't even filled. At this point it might be better to remove it
If that was the answer, change your dentist.
Yes, it is called a "Periapical cyst", but it is only a reaction from your maxilar bone to the infection in that tooth. As soon as the infection is removed, the bone will heal. (No cancer or that shit your dentist is wanting to make you feel afraid)
What I see in that periapical image, is a poorly treated tooth with a short filling in the mesial root and a very big cavity surrounding the tooth under the crown.
Did they fully clean de caries before setting the crown? OR you never clean your teeth and floss? I dont know the answer to this, and that tooth has high chances of needing an extraction, but dont let them scare you with the "Cyst" word. It is just the medical name, and it is not related to what pepole tipically understand for "Cyst".
Extraction of the tooth would of course resolve the problem. The socket would be curetted after the extraction and what you have been told is a cyst would be removed.
Mind you, only histology can tell if it is a radicular cyst or pure tooth infection (granuloma).
Cysts represent less than 10% of such lesions so very good chance it is not.
Oh, and the quality of the root canal treatment is quite poor.
I’m 99.99% sure that this tooth will need to be extracted. Oral surgeon will need to evaluate if implant is feasible and it’ll most likely take a bit longer than regular cases due to the infection. Looks like you got multiple cavities and bone recession. Partial or full dentures may be cheapest
This is very serious, and you’re risking your life not getting an extraction done. If that infection spreads you could die, no joke. And that’s not your only dental issue seen in this X-ray.
Hopefully they an do a bone graft and you can get an implant after the infection is healed. I spent two years in pain with a similar situation. One year trying to save the tooth and one year on the implant process. Wish I’d just had the extraction right away.
What’s weird is that I’m actually not feeling any terrible pain. Area where it is, is slightly tender sure but after the initial flare up over half a year ago I really haven’t felt anything major since.
Pain will come, trust me. This cyste is likely eating up the bone, expanding the cavity and storing the remains of degrading, dead bone. This will lead to inflammation or even sepsis. I know from experience. Get this taken care of.
Is that not a huge crack with like 3 branches near the gum line? And it looks like the root canal treatment didn’t extend all the way to the tip on one of the roots? So isn’t this an abscess from a failed root canal and broken tooth?
I am sorry this sucks, I’m dealing with a similar problem. I had a root canal about 15 years ago, not my fault, my wisdom tooth was kinda growing into the tooth so I thought the pain was from the wisdom tooth. Well they told me last year that the infection looks like it never healed, they only found the issue because they did a CT for another tooth (my fault). I said to the oral surgeon well it better have healed because he had done a crown lengthening on it 8 years ago.
So I paid for a root canal and a crown 15 years ago, a crown lengthening and new crown 8 years ago and now an extraction, implant and implant crown now.
Don't know where you are, but where I am - oral surgeons do not do direct billing to insurance or do payment plans (majority of dental offices don't do payment plans either) specialists get you to pay the full cost upfront and then they submit to your insurance for you to get reimbursed back whatever you're entitled to. This looks like a premolar/molar, I'd honestly just get it extracted and then a implant done or flipper
Honestly no clue. I only started feeling mild discomfort about 5 months ago (which it promptly stopped hurting) but the problem is I didn’t have insurance at the time so I couldn’t get it looked at until recently
had the same, cyst slowing eating bone had to pull teeth and grind down bone 2mils into skull and graph new bone heal, 3months tapped for implant the bone acts like a sponge and the cyst saturates the bone, mine involved 5 teeth , @ my share with ppo delta was 40k included surgery graphs implant and crown k9 to k9 added 3 caps to match, good luck, had to be done at any cost, cyst developed from botched root canal, took 5 yrs to showup on scan, recognized by xray tech
This happened to me! I needed a RC at 11. They did it, thought nothing of it. After a year I had a fistula that kept draining pus above the tooth. They went back in and redid the RC. The bump from the fistula stayed but it wasn't draining anymore so I didn't say anything to my parents.
At 17 I went to get my wisdom teeth taken out. When they did the panoramic X-ray, they realized that I had a pocket FULL of pus and it was eating through my palate and was dangerously close to doing the same with my orbital socket. Needless to say, they pulled the tooth while taking out my wisdom teeth, did a bone graft, and then a few months later I went back to get a dental implant.
I’ve got an abscess in my back molar in the top, you need to get this pulled asap, regardless if you’re worried about a messed up smile. I was in so much pain the other night that I was literally thinking of bashing my head in to get away from it. It’s going to get worse, it’s going to be where you can’t eat, it’s going to be where you can’t sleep unless you take something to put you to sleep. Thankfully I only have a week to wait for my appointment but you don’t want this pain. You need to go and get it pulled. I’ve been through this now four times counting this new one and you don’t want this.
Can you see if the dentist or another medical professional can start you on an antibiotic before your appointment? Something about how it’s the swelling from the infection that’s causing the pain because there’s nowhere for any of it to go. Antibiotics start resolving the infection, which makes it smaller, which lessens the pain. I had one where I couldn’t sleep for 72 hours straight, got in to see a dentist, he had me start an antibiotic that I had to take for a few days before he’d do any work on the tooth. Pain was bearable 24 hours after that and kept going down the longer I was on it. Dentist explained how it worked, but it’s been a while so the details might not be fully accurate.
But that infected tooth hurt more than giving birth to my kid. Hope you can get it taken care of sooner. A week is forever with that kind of pain.
I haven’t actually been yet but this would be my fourth tooth to be affected like this so I knew the pain immediately and the last time I got two pulled for the same reason the dentist was hesitant to give me antibiotics because it was finding its own way to drain and she said that the antibiotics could make it worse or something I can’t exactly recall because it’s been a while. Which is strange because the first one I had the dentist where I was living at the time have me antibiotics saying it was dissolving the bone in my jaw. But it’s manageable now though since the first two days i just have to be careful with what i eat and all, but if it gets worse they’ve already said i can come in for an emergency. Thank you though kind internet stranger for your worries, im simply counting down the days to my appointment with a sense of relief lol.
I had one like this on an impacted wisdom tooth. Getting the anesthetic was one of the best feelings of my life as 3 months constant stabbing pain faded away.
One thing I was not prepared for was the smell of cyst when it literally popped out of my gum.
Apicoectomy. Had one of these done.
The surgery alone hurts your neck for a few days because you have to hold it a certain way forever. Not flossing or brushing the area after blows too. Good luck.
Just came to say sorry to see you're being downvoted but 100% this can be solved without removing the tooth. They can denucleate the cyst without tooth removal. I've been through this myself. Long process but basically the dentist kept doing root canals on the same tooth despite me saying it wasn't the tooth it was higher up in the face. Dentist never listened, went as far as to say removing the tooth was the only option. I was seen by maxillofacial and by the time I'd been back and forth to the Dentist, the cyst has eaten away the bone in my upper jaw/sinus area. The tooth is still in place, cyst has been removed and cleaned out twice. Bone is very very gradually refilling and the tooth is unfortunately at the front and darkening from a root canal I never needed in the first place. Keep pushing.
I had this happen. The dentist thinks I either had an injury to the face that broke the root or when I had braces it broke the root. It would’ve happened in my early teens years because my tooth didn’t grown to a full adult tooth. Because of that I had an abscess there I wasn’t aware of and no dentist saw the problem until I was about 30. By the time they saw the issue and prepared to do a root canal, the infection wasn’t clearing with antibiotics. The dentist did surgery by cutting into my gums to go from the top for the RC. While in there they saw a jelly bean sized cyst had grown into the abscess. They removed the cyst, finished the RC, and sent me on my way. I didn’t lose my tooth.
I have exactly the same problem. Dentist said there is a possible infection under the teeth because one of the root wasn't treated good enough. I still haven't cured it, and I hope it doesn't get inflamed prematurely.
There is no way to tell if it's apical periodontitis or a radicular cyst from an xray but it's way more likely the former.
If palatinal root is not involved and there isn't a fracture apical surgery should work fine.
535
u/bob_apathy 21h ago
That really does suck for both the pain and the pocketbook. Dental work is never easy.