Dental Survey: Dentists Are Split On Doing Root Canals

In this dental survey, The Wealthy Dentist asked dentists how often they referred out root canal cases, and how they felt about doing root canal therapy (RCT) work.

Half of the dentists surveyed refer out from 50% to 100% of root canal cases.

Most of the dentists in this group also said they don’t like doing root canals (Ugh!).

“Of all the procedures I perform, RCT is the most tedious and unpredictable. My failure rate with this procedure is now zero since referring them to the specialists. My patients are happier, my staff are happier and I now focus on procedures that I am comfortable with,” said a Nevada dentist.

For other dentists who refer the work out, it’s a matter of having enough training.

“I need to take more courses to become more proficient then maybe I would enjoy them more. I do only the very easy ones now. I used to do most until it was discovered that most upper first molars have 4 canals and I had only ever found 3,” said a general dentist.

“Overtly unusual anatomy goes to the endodontist along with calcified canals,” said a Pennsylvania dentist.

For some, it’s a matter of economics, and the return on time spent doing them:

“I find them very stressful but challenging. They are not a real money maker for me,” said a Washingon dentist.

The other half of the dentists who responded to our survey do all RCT work in-house (26.5%) , or refer out only about a quarter or less (23.5%).

Overall, 44% of dentists said they enjoy performing root canal therapy.

“With modern rotary instrumentation techniques they are simple to perform,” said a North Dakota dentist.

Only 9% of our dentists said they enjoy the money earned by doing root canals more than the work itself.

The rest either don’t like doing root canals at all (29%) or had mixed responses (18%).

“Those who do them well should do them all!” said a Texas dentist.

“Endodontists statitically get better outcomes than GPs,” said an Arizona prosthodontist.

Do you perform root canal therapy in-house or refer it out? What’s the reason for your decision?