Root canals in Medellín

Root canals in Medellín from $700,000 COP for a single-rooted tooth and $1,300,000 COP for a multi-rooted one. Usually one appointment.

There is a second number that matters more than either of those, and most clinics do not mention it until afterwards. It is further down this page.

Why there are two prices

Teeth do not all have the same number of roots, and each root holds a canal that has to be found, cleaned, shaped and sealed.

A front tooth usually has one. A molar at the back usually has three, sometimes four, and they curve. The work is not a little longer; it is a different appointment.

So the price follows the tooth, not the person. Which one yours is will be clear from the X-ray, before anything starts.

How you know you might need one

Inside the hard outer shell of a tooth there is a soft core — the pulp — made of nerve, blood vessels and lymph tissue. When bacteria reach it through deep decay, a crack, or a blow to the face, it begins to die. Root canal treatment removes it before the infection spreads into the bone.

The usual signs:

• Pain, from a dull ache to the kind that wakes you up
• A tooth that has darkened compared with its neighbours
• Swelling or soreness in the gum around one tooth
• A shadow at the root tip on an X-ray

And one that is not a sign of anything: feeling fine. A tooth whose nerve has already died often stops hurting, and people take that as the problem resolving itself. It is not. That is usually the point at which the infection quietly moves into the bone.

What actually happens

The tooth is anaesthetised first, properly, before anything else. An opening is made through the top of the tooth to reach the pulp chamber.

The canals are then cleaned along their whole length with flexible nickel-titanium files, down to the tip of each root. The point is to leave nothing behind: no infected tissue, no debris, no bacteria.

Finding the exact end of a curved canal is the difficult part, and it is where root canals succeed or fail. Two things help: X-rays taken during the cleaning, and an apex locator, which finds the tip of the root electronically rather than by estimating it from an image.

The canals are then disinfected and sealed with gutta-percha, a natural material that expands to fill the space. The opening made to reach them is sealed with a white filling, matched to the colour of the tooth, so nothing shows and nothing can get back in.

Most teeth are finished in one appointment. Some need two, usually when the infection is extensive or the anatomy is awkward, and in those cases antibiotics may be prescribed before treatment begins.

Does it hurt?

The treatment is done under anaesthesia and you should not feel the work itself.

Root canals have a reputation they mostly inherited from the pain that comes before them. An infected nerve is one of the worst pains in dentistry, and the treatment is what ends it. People remember the week before the appointment and attribute it to the appointment.

Afterwards the tooth is usually tender to bite on for a few days, sometimes longer if the infection was advanced. That is normal, it settles, and we will tell you what to expect rather than leaving you to wonder whether something went wrong.

The root canal is not the end of the treatment

This is the number nobody mentions at the quote, and it is the reason people feel misled later.

A tooth that has had root canal treatment is hollow where the pulp used to be, and usually lost structure through whatever caused the problem in the first place. It is more brittle than it was. The white filling that seals the access hole closes the tooth, but it does not hold it together — and a back tooth left at that stage will often fracture within a few years. A tooth that fractures at the root is usually lost.

So the treatment normally continues after the canals are sealed:

• The white filling that seals the access, from $90,000 COP, quoted separately from the root canal
• A core build-up to rebuild the missing structure, from $500,000 COP, when it is needed
• A crown over the top, from $2,500,000 COP, for most back teeth

Not every tooth needs all of it, and a front tooth with little damage sometimes needs only the filling. But you should hear the whole figure before you start, not after. A molar root canal that ends in a crown is closer to $4,400,000 COP than to $1,300,000, and we would rather you knew that today.

When taking the tooth out is the better answer

Sometimes there is not enough sound tooth left to justify saving it.

If the tooth would be rebuilt on almost nothing, the honest recommendation is to remove it and place an implant instead. It costs more at the start and it costs less than paying for a root canal, a build-up and a crown, and then losing the tooth anyway.

That call is made at the examination, with the X-ray, before any work begins.

If you are travelling to Medellín

The root canal itself is usually one appointment, which makes it sound like a short trip. The crown afterwards is what sets the dates.

A crown takes 8 to 10 full business days because of the laboratory, so a root canal that ends in a crown means about two weeks here once weekends are counted. Colombia also has a high number of public holidays, and a week with two of them adds days.

Send us your X-rays before you book flights. We will tell you how many visits it realistically takes.

What root canals cost

	COP per tooth
Root canal, single-rooted tooth	from $700,000
Root canal, multi-rooted tooth	from $1,300,000
White filling to seal the access	from $90,000
Core build-up afterwards, when needed	from $500,000
Crown on top, when needed	from $2,500,000

Starting prices, confirmed after an examination and an X-ray. Complex cases that need more than one appointment are quoted before treatment begins, not during it.

Prices are in Colombian pesos. We quote in pesos because the exchange rate moves — you can check today’s rate.