“But do I need a crown??” This is something we hear too often, and it is usually after discussing a treatment plan that involves crowning a tooth, and especially when we need to talk about a root canal and a crown. When a patient needs a root canal, I always explain to the patient that you will need a crown on that tooth. The reason is: in order to properly disinfect the tooth, we need to clean out all the decay, and by doing so, it can leave the tooth very fragile, and prone to breaking. In fact, studies have shown that the survival rate for a tooth that had a root canal, but didn’t get a crown is only 36% after 5 years! That means, that if you get the root canal, but opt out of crowning the tooth, the likelihood is that in 5 years that tooth will be gone!