Expert: Mark Bornfeld DDS - 12/7/2007

Question
We haven't gone to the dentist regular but my 16 year old daughter had 2 root canals when we went back to pick her up! The dentist didn't call us ahead of time or anything. He said you can't always go by the X-rays that there are shadows on them. He said the more he dug into the tooth the farther he went and the next thing he had was a root canal.

My question is how common are root canals in 16 year olds?
Especially 2 of them?

Answer
Dear Jesse Johnson,

I am not aware of the statistical data regarding age-adjusted incidence of root canal therapy; I'm not sure that such information is available. However, the frequency of root canals in a teenager would be related to factors of tooth decay prevalence, and that would be determined by genetic and environmental factors. In my location, root canals are less frequently performed on teen agers simply because the public water supply is fluoridated, which has dramatically reduced the frequency of tooth decay in children who have consumed the product since birth. There are exceptions, though, and I can think of a few of my teenage patients who have had at least two root canals.

Keep in mind that even for the child who doesn't tend to get many cavities, if there are long spans of time between dental checkups, this will provide opportunity for shallow cavities to become deep, until they inevitably will expose the dental pulp and necessitate root canal therapy. This is the intent of regular professional care-- to diagnose small problems before they become bigger ones.

Hope this helps...

Mark Bornfeld DDS
www.dentaltwins.com
Brooklyn, NY