John's oncology dentist at the cancer centre, who he's been seeing every few weeks for about the last 8 months, has told him he needs a root canal. It's on the opposite side from his tumour site so he received less radiation on that side but still had some.

The oncology dentist seems to think it would be fine for our regular dentist to perform the root canal. Although we've gone to the same guy for about 10 years, I recently switched to a wonderful new dentist because he insisted he could do a root canal for me and then the freezing wore off and because he was not a root canal specialist, he could not give me any other more comprehesive type of anesthetic.

My main question is has anyone on the site had a root canal performed post chemo-radiation? It seems like it would be a bigger deal than the dentist at the cancer centre is making it because of the changes in the bone due to radiation. ON the other hand, he's very experienced in this area - in his late 50s and only works out of the cancer centre. Not sure why he's not suggesting doing it himself.

Mary

Hi Mary,

Welcome to the OCF.

There is no reason why your husband cannot have root canal treatment. Having a tooth extracted after radiation is a concern, but not root canal treatment. Root canals have no effect on the bone.

It seems that something is missing in the interpretation of what happened with your treatment. Being a endodontist (root canal specialist) has nothing to do with being able to give any type of local anesthesia.

Perhaps the oncology dentist doesn't do root canals or feels that he doesn't want to step on the toes of the general dentist.

Please give my best wishes to your husband and his continued success.

Jerry

Jerry - thanks so much for your input. It's really helpful to know the bone isn't involved in root canal work.

My own experience was that when my former dentist was working on my root canal, the freezing wore off and he told me he couldn't give me anything else because he wasn't licensed to do so( maybe it's different here in Canada?). Possibly something got lost in translation but the result was that I had to spend 15 minutes or so with him trying to get the last tiny piece of nerve out with no freezing in place. yikes. not a nice experience.

I still think I will try and convince my husband to go to an endodonist. After all he's been through I don't want him to have my experience.

all the best
Mary

Mary,

Perhaps the rules are different. Here, any dentist can use any local anesthetic that they like. The depth of anesthesia varies with the product. We do have to be liscensed to put someone to sleep, but I doubt that that is what he was referring to.

Seeing an endodontist is probably a very good idea, as they spend all day doing the difficult ones. That's why we have them available. Not that your husband's will necessarily be difficult, but at least with an endodontist, you have someone with extra training and expertise in getting the canals filled well.

He should also get a crown put on the tooth after the root canal is finished as these teeth are more apt to fracture than vital teeth. Having a crown is also nothing to be concerned about.

Again, good luck.

Jerry