To pull or not to pull

THAT is the question.

Well - for some time I've been grinding my teeth. There's been this chasm of tension between me and Amanda, there was that 10 days between visits with Fay. There's been a lot of tension in my life lately, and so I guess I'm grinding my teeth. The problem with this?

Here's the deal: The upper and lower molar on the right side broke on eachother. The upper one the dentist could fix with a simple filling. The lower one, however, appears to have cracked through. The x-ray doesn't show anything--because x-ray's don't show anything going on inside the tooth, can't show a crack in the root either. So - after I got my teeth cleaned, there begun this deep throbbing pain in my lower molar. I thought geez what did the woman do to me? A subsequent check showed the dentist a "rather ominous" crack. He said if it's cracked this way it's this procedure, if it's cracked this way its a root canal and crown. Or - we could try this.. or we can wait, or we can try antibiotics.

So I said to him if you can't fix it with a filling, pull it. Ok - he dug it out and filled it. After the numbing stuff wore off, the throbbing started back up. Ok - strike one. I went back and he filed off the filling some more - so the upper and lower teeth don't meet unless there's food between them. He said if the filling doesn't work the next step is a root canal and crown. Strike two.

WOAHHHH chuckie - we're talking $2,000 or better. My fatherinlaw says avoid the root canal. The dentist says that's it to save the tooth. The online system makes me think the root canal won't do anything for me, if the root is cracked this won't help. The only thing that will work is pulling it.

So the question to those of you that have been here is this: What do you suggest? Have you had a root canal? Did it help? Was the root possibly cracked to start with? I have a crown already that was a result from a disintigrating tooth around a filling. This new cracked tooth is right next to the crown, and so the crown will be the only molar on the lower side if I have the cracked one pulled . It sounds like to me I'm going to lose that tooth eventually anyway.

I guess after I get some genuine input here I'll have to decide about it. Chris of course says have it pulled. I've been reading up about in-plants to replace the row of left upper molars I don't have. I have been told to avoid in-plants - period!!!! I don't know... I'm only 46, I hate to think of my entire future life with no molars, nothing to be able to chew anything tougher than bread and raw vegetables? Oatmeal and cream corn, here I come. sigh............