My 6yr old daughter had a filling now that tooth has an abscess on the gum the denist said root canal but why can't we just pull it?

Tooth abscess: Your dentist is trying to preserve your tooth., accordingly he did a root canal.

Ask dentist: May depend if baby or permanent tooth. Call dentist and discuss the options with him.

Tooth is needed: To keep the space for the permanent tooth following it , at 6 years old your daughters baby tooth can be treated and kept in function for as long as 4/5 more years tel she gets the successor permanent tooth depending on which tooth is it.

An option: An abscess means the tooth is non-vital (dead). Non-vital pulp therapy (pulpectomy) in baby teeth (i am assuming a molar) doesn't have the highest access rate. Extracting it may be a viable option, but a space maintainer is usually indicated is premature extractions. You do not want your child's teeth to drift out of place which could cause a multitude of problems.

2 options: One option is to do root canal treatment on baby tooth. The other option is to remove tooth and place space maintainer. You need a place-holder for the underlying permanent tooth. Your dentist knows your child best, listen carefully to his recommendations.

Better: An extraction is actually a better choice for a primary tooth with an abscess. If the tooth is abscessed the only treatment that is recommended is an extraction or a pulpectomy. A baby root canal (pulpotomy) is not a good choice for this tooth. If there is no permanent tooth or if the is no tooth behind the abscessed tooth a pulpectomy is sometimes done to hole the tooth as a space maintainer.

6 year old: Is the tooth a baby tooth or a permanent tooth? If it is a permanent tooth, get the root canal and save the tooth. If you extract a permanent tooth, her other teeth will come in crooked. If it is a primary baby tooth, saving or extracting the tooth is dependent on when the permanent tooth under it will erupt. Baby teeth are important as space maintainers so the permanent tooth has room to erupt.

Listen to dentist!: if your dentist says save it, then do so! If it's a baby tooth, extracting will lead to loss of space and orthodontic problems! If it's a permanent tooth, extracting till cause bite and other problems that are time consuming and expensive to traea! A root canal and tooth preservation is the best and most conservative treatment long term?

Listen to dentist: Losing teeth at that age is asking for all kinds of problems down the line. Is the tooth a permanent or baby (deciduous) tooth? That may help in determining the treatment.