needed a root canal a few years back. went to the first local place. got an estimate of $2500. way too much for my blood. called around, got someone else to do it for around $1300. Found out there's actually a guy closer who does most for around $900+. But... I went with the $1300 lady. She was fine, and have been going back since. It's a bit of a drive, but the initial price was enough of a 'trust' factor for me, and I trust now that if/when I need something done, I need it done, and that her price will be reasonable. It might be a bad assumption on my part, but I did have that initial savings years ago. She'd be having to jack up everything else quite a lot to be trying to gouge me, and I don't think it's happening. She's just in a less expensive part of town, generally sees less affluent patients, and everything is priced for that market. That it's a 20 mile drive to get there doesn't bother me.
I can tell you from experience that an improperly done root canal can come back to bite you years later. Had one done by IHS[1] when I was in 6th grade. During my 1st year in college I woke up with mouth pain that was really, really bad. Had to get a parent to come get me and drive me to a dentist. He took x-rays and found out I had an infection growing since the initial root canal[2]. He prescribed antibiotics and a massive pain reliever (Percodan[3]). It took four weeks for the infection to go down enough for surgery. The doctor said it might come back because they might not get it all. It took two more operations (5 and 10 years later) to fix it all.
1) given what's happened to so many other people, I feel I got off cheap.
2) no, the IHS dentists did not see this growing and it was probably slowed by the multiple antibiotic prescriptions for step throat in high school.
3) Took it for two weeks, I'm still amazed I was functional enough to take tests and program. That stuff is a whole lot of don't care in one bottle.
understood. the procedure referenced above was from... gosh now, 9 years ago. no issues with it (I've had other teeth issues but not her fault). Wife had a bad root canal done by a 'fancier' place which went bad a few years later.
