I was having toothaches for a month, and I went to this older guy dentist in
town. he looked and tapped and poked, and said that I probably needed either
a root canal or an extraction, although he saw swelling on my face, he could
see nothing wrong with the surface of the tooth.  I went to another dentist,
and he said I have a large cavity on the root of the tooth(#3) , and it
needed either root canal or extraction, and when pressed, he said root canal
might enable me to keep the tooth for "a few years". I asked, 'is that less
than five years' and he demurred, saying it is difficult to predict. I
finally decide to have it extracted, and was sent to an oral surgeon. I
started to make an appointment with a DDS, but was told by the second doctor
that an oral surgeon was indicated because the tooth 'is fractured' as well
as being ulcerated on the exposed root surface. I went to the surgeon, and
he said 'that tooth is unsalvageable' and if it was his tooth he would have
it yanked also. He took a slim jim and  a pair of pliers and after needling
it he twisted it out, with a sickening(for me) cracking sound which I felt
as well a heard.

Question why is there no consensus? Does the lack of professional and  the
valiant  fight put up by the tooth mean that it was nowhere near a lost
cause? Mike.

ps dentists number two and three expressed wonder at the fact that dentist
#1 said he saw no cavity.