I was always curious why it was that whenever I visit a dentist to have my false tooth piece fixed (Stepfather walloped me in the back of the head and I smacked my face off the back of the dining room steel chair and half went missing) they X-Ray it to see if it needs a root canal. Never has. Just always curious why. I guess now I know because of the trauma of impact?
Kevin
When I was twelve, I got hit in the mouth with a baseball that I failed to catch. Broke my left front tooth clean in half.
They put a fake bottom half on using pins (which I later was told was a practice abandoned by most years earlier (this was in about 1992). They warned me that eventually I'd need a root canal.
Fast forward about 10 years.
The tooth dies. I know this because I have an abcess (sp?) and the fluid (correct me if I'm wrong doc) had drained out of my teeth into my gums creating a pocket of fluid. This required a root canal, and then a crown.
My guess is, that they're keeping an eye on your tooth because eventually you're going to go through what I did.