>>But what made me hesitate was how quickly this determination was made. She took one glance at the xray and said "This tooth needs to be extracted." Instantly.

>>But what made me hesitate was how quickly this determination was made. She took one glance at the xray and said "This tooth needs to be extracted." Instantly. This is not unusual. Experts know how to recognize patterns quickly because they have lots of training and experience to do it. If a dentist looks at an x-ray and sees what looks like rotting tooth root, he or she will recommend taking out that tooth, and the chances are very, very good that he or she is right. >>For lucky reasons, I could not arrange the operation. I say "lucky" because I still have that tooth, and that was four years ago. If I had listened to credentials, I would be one less tooth and none the wiser. What happened is that your dentist informed you that leaving the tooth in would be very risky because it could lead to a much more serious condition and require major surgery such as a root canal. You decided to take that risk (or circumstances forced you to) and got lucky and nothing bad happened. This doesn't mean that the dentist was wrong.