Should my 17 year old daughter have a tooth pulled?

[moonstruck0924]

My daughter has a cavity in one of her upper back teeth. I have 2 options for her. She either gets it extracted or a root canal. The problem is she doesn't have dental insurance. So I can either pay a very minimal cost for the extraction or go for the root canal and save the tooth at almost 1900.00. Will it cause a problem to have this tooth missing at her age? And the empty space will not be visible when she smiles.

 

[DavidA]

yes she should hahahahahaha

 

[Ralfcoder]

I'm no dentist or dental expert, so take this for what you think it's worth. Or check with your dentist about it to see what he thinks. After all, he's the expert.

If you have the tooth removed, any teeth behind it will tend to cant forward into that space. If her wisdom teeth haven't come in yet, they may very well push the teeth in front of them into this space. It may interfere with her bite - that is, how her upper and lower teeth fit together. She could have some sort of bridge put in there to fill the space, but that will cost you quite a bit too.

Talk to your dentist, and see if this will actually happen, or if it's likely. To me, the best thing would be to do the root canal. Maybe the dentist can offer you options? Pay over time, or refer you to a dental clinic at a dental school, perhaps?