Root canal? I told my 13 year old daughter I refuse to pay for her root canal. What do you think?

Question

She admits to being lazy and she refuses to take care of her teeth. She has ALWAYS detested brushing her teeth and has an "I don't care" attitude. If I get her the root canal, I feel that she will continue to defy me and not take care of her teeth. I want to refuse her the root canal and allow the dentist to remove the tooth to teach her a lesson.

Answer 1

Pay for the root canal. Firstly because as a parent you're kind of responsible for doing that. Secondly. Root canals hurt a lot. I think root canals are actually worse to go through than having your tooth pulled.

Answer 2

what kind of parenting is that? if that is her primary tooth then i can understand getting it pulled, but if that's her permanent tooth do you realize that you can mess up her whole bite by getting it extracted. what will you do to replace that tooth once its extracted? the top teeth support the lower teeth and vice versus once one tooth is pulled the other teeth start to shift into its place.

Answer 3

Sounds good to me, although some may say a bit barbaric

but trust me i have had root canal done and i would never get it done again, it is far more painful and i now have a over sensitive tooth even though they apparently removed all the root!

it has also turned my tooth black, which will be the only one in my mouth and i dont have any fillings!

so i wish i had had mine removed

good luck

Answer 4

It is upto you. Root canals are very painful (i have had one myself), so if she does have that, she will learn from that experience, trust me. Root canals save the teeth, and I think you should let her keep her tooth especially since she is at such a young age.

The dentist would also advise against removing the tooth and may actually REFUSE to extract the tooth - a lot of dentists do this because they feel it is unnecessary to remove the tooth when the tooth could be saved. It is ultimately your decision though, but if I were you, i'd let her have the root canal. Teeth are precious and you only have one permenant set..

If you want to 'teach her a lesson', you can pay for her root canal this time and next time she needs one, you can tell her she won't have the option next time (the tooth will be extracted). Trust me, after the root canal she will definetely want to start brushing her teeth anyway.

Answer 5

You're the adult, and your legally responsible for her care.  Protect yourself legally.  Not sure if you can 'get away' with a tooth extraction or not.

As for responsibility, give her a choice: you brush your teeth, or I'll brush them for you.  Or, give her the choice of paying for the root canal vs the extraction.  It'll be years of early morning paper routes - but might fix the lazyness in the process.

Answer 6

Because you want to teach her a lesson, you will deprive her of a tooth for the rest of her life.

WHO IS THE CHILD HERE ??

Let her go through the pain and inconvenience of a root canal, it will be lesson enough.

Answer 7

I think you should have paid for the root canal. You are responsible for the child's care.  It sounds to me as if there are some deeper issues here than just dental care.  I think that allowing the dentist to pull the tooth will not teach the child a lesson as there are much deeper rooted problems that having a tooth pulled will not resolve. I advise some sort of counseling for you and your daughter.

Answer 8

Wow, how petty and immature of you.

Root canals are horrible to get, maybe the experience itself will wake her up.

She'll need her teeth for the rest of her life.  If she is not taking care of them someone should be.  

The best you can do is remind her every night to brush her teeth.  Have her come into the bathroom with you and you can brush your teeth together.  In the meantime the very least you can do is pay for her necessary dental care.

OR you could let this cavity possibly abcess and spread to somewhere else.  You know, where it could kill her.

http://worldental.org/gums/abscessed-too...

Have fun with that.

edited to add: How is removing the tooth going to teach her more of a lesson than getting a root canal? Both experiences suck.