re: Do dentists just not do the hard stuff anymore?

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The amount of ignorance in this thread is embarrassing even for the OT

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My OT response is I have little respect for these dentists that work 4 days a week on a job because they couldn’t get into medical school.

Yet they mostly print money and have great work life balances.

I agree OP but at the same time most people are probably better off waiting on the guys that do it daily like an endidontist.

I got punched in the jaw about 15 years ago. It cracked one of wisdom teeth. 5 years later was in excruciating pain on a Friday. My dentist (a buddy I went to HS with) gave me an antibiotic over the weekend. He pulled it out the next Monday. I’m talking standing over top of me in the chair with a pair of pliers! He numbed it, but the pressure and his fat fingers in there were painful.
Fast forward 2 years and the molar next to it is giving me problems. He checked it out. He said they can’t pull it or it would affect my facial structure. Gotta do a root canal, but he was booked up. He’d have his second dentist do it.
She was this tiny (dot) Indian. She had these dainty little fingers. Completed the root canal including the cap in about 4 hours. Absolutely no pain! I returned to work that afternoon. Didn’t even need ibuprofen!

UPDATE (assuming anybody cares):

Had a root canal today. I need a crown. Tooth saved. But I feel like I’ve been punched in the face by Mike Tyson.

Carry on.

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Same thing with me. He was going to send me to someone for a root canal, then back to him to a cap, etc. I asked how much would that cost, he said it'd start at $1500. I asked how much to pull it, he said $200. I asked, "any reason to not pull it?" He said no, not really. Five minutes and I was minus a tooth.

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So the next time your tooth hurts, you doing the same thing? What about the time after that? And the time after that? Eventually, this approach leads to dentures… which suck and can lead to a host of other issues. Now don’t get me wrong, sometimes it is best to remove a tooth for the greater good, or if it is a non-contributing tooth. But in general, I just don’t really understand the mindset of saving $1300 at the expense of your tooth. If your home AC went out and the tech came in and told you “it’ll be $8500 to fix it, or we can just rip it out and not replace it for $200” I guarantee you you wouldn’t bat an eye.

In 2012 I got thrown off a horse. I broke 4 vertebrae, 3 ribs, ruptured my adrenal gland and was bleeding internally.

The doctor said “what’s the pain level”? I responded with “it’s about a 4”.

He said “if this is a 4, what is a 10”. I no joke told him “you ever had a tooth ache”, and I wasn’t kidding. Nothing compares to that pain…. Nothing.