“Can a regular dentist do a root canal?”

yes but may be not as good as specialist

Root Canals: (Regular) General Dentists are trained in all dental schools to perform Root Canal therapy. Each dentist can choose to do them or not depending on different reasons. If a general dentist chooses not to do Root Canal Therapy, then the dentist will refer that patient to a Root Canal specialist (Called an Endodontist) who will perform the Root Canal and send them back to their general dentist to restore the tooth with either a filling or a crown for long term strengthening... Michael Frith DDS

Yes. By "regular dentist" I assume you are referring to a general or family dentist and not a specialist. However, some chose not to do any, however. Other, myself included, do not do molar root canals.

Yes, most regular dentists do that, in my practice, it's one of the most commonly preformed procedures.

Yes

Thanks for your question. Yes a trained general dentist can do root canals.

Root canals require probably the highest degree of care and attention to detail for successful treatment as any dental procedure. Every dentist is required to learn how to do and to actually do a certain number of root canals in their dental school training. After that, it depends on one's own particular;ar interest whether one continues to do them in practice. Every dentist is legally allowed to do root canals, but is under the obligation of knowing when to refer to an Endodontist. Endodontics is the specialty of root canals and it very much deserves to be a specialty because not all root canals are the same. There is a huge range of complications presented in various teeth and conditions within a tooth that determine difficulty. This is where the question has to be answered carefully. There are many general dentists who can achieve good results on easy teeth. There are fewer general dentists who can achieve good results on complex teeth and fewer the more complex the situations presents. Endodontists are highly trained in evaluating and treating complex situations. These, in my opinion, should be done in their hands. This becomes a bit more complicated when one considers that often times the complexities do not present themselves until the procedure has begun and this is either due to lack of proper diagnosis or truly hidden problems. Endodontists are these days, better equipped to make complex diagnoses and decisions that affect the course of treatment. The most recent decade has seen rapid growth in new materials, techniques, equipment, and training that has changed the methods in which root canals are done. It is a consideration that the average general dentist is becoming less and less able to keep pace with the high tech and methods evolving in doing root canals. Root canal techniques changed very slowly over the last 30 years and it was not hard to keep up with the changes. It is a different story in today's rapidly changing root canal high tech enviornment. As you can see, it is not an easy question to answer, but this gives you a good overview of the situation.