I went to my dentist with a large cavity in a tooth. He said I had a50/50 chance of it abcessing and he gave me Penicillin. He said if it was going to abcess I would start hurting bad in the first day or two. It has been a week and sometime it will start hurting for no apparent reason and quit about 20 minutes later. He gave me Vicoprofen for the pain. That stops it right away though. Do you think the tooth is abcessed? Now he just has a pupl cap over it until he does the permanent filling.

If it is abcessed, will a root canal solve the problem, or must the tooth be pulled?

I can post a pic of it, if you want.

If the tooth is dying it will hurt now and then and stop for not apparent reason.By the DDS placing the pulp cap he is being very conservitive before jumping right in a doing a RCT,which is a good thing. You have nothing to lose if the DDS goes ahead and places a permenent filling after he feels sufficient time has past with the pulp cap. if after the filling is placed and the tooth starts to abcess he can still do the RCT without any problem at all. If the tooth does abcess on your YES you can and should have the RCT done.