Could antibiotics help me avoid a root canal?

I started to feel tooth pain when drinking cold things, so I went to the dentist.

The doctor said I seemed to have an abscess in my root (though no cavities) and that I might need a root canal, but then asked me whether I wanted to have the root canal right there or take some antibiotics and wait, but he then said it probably wouldn't help avoid the root canal. He gave me antibiotics anyway and said to call if it still hurt.

So my question is, how big is the chance of antibiotics healing my root? Could my tooth heal on its own? If not, why not?

I can take the pain, I had my wisdom teeth (all four at once) removed, I just want to avoid unnecessarily killing my tooth.

I started to feel tooth pain when drinking cold things, so I went to the dentist.

The doctor said I seemed to have an abscess in my root (though no cavities) and that I might need a root canal, but then asked me whether I wanted to have the root canal right there or take some antibiotics and wait, but he then said it probably wouldn't help avoid the root canal. He gave me antibiotics anyway and said to call if it still hurt.

So my question is, how big is the chance of antibiotics healing my root? Could my tooth heal on its own? If not, why not?

I can take the pain, I had my wisdom teeth (all four at once) removed, I just want to avoid unnecessarily killing my tooth.

Probably not going to help.  I've had abscesses (abscese?  absci?  whatever, a few of them ;p) else where and the antibiotics helped to kill the infection and stop it getting any larger, but ultimately they have had to be punctured and cleaned out properly since the body just wouldn't remove the junk that's in there by itself - it's something to do with the cell wall that forms around the abscess, though this could only relate to those on the skin surface.  Sucks that it's in the root, but probably best to get it sorted out quickly before it has the chance to cause any other problems.  Look on the bright side, you could probably scam a few days off of work\school to catch up on all the games that have been coming out =D.

I wish I could take school off, I can't get out of the final project. It's college.

There are dentists out there that give out free advice, and doctors too, so it might be good to consult them instead of a video game website :)

I'd like to think things were more malleable than dentists usually give you the impression they are, but I honestly have no idea.

i have had a few root canals, you just have to man-up and get it over with. The lack of pain afterwards is worth the intensity of the pain while you are in the chair...

If the tooth is supposedly dead, there shouldn't be much pain right...?

And I'm just looking for opinions. So Sweep, did you get crowns? Do  you have problems with your root canaled teeth?

My orthodontist said that he believes about 2/3 of people that received root canals don't really need root canals. He also said something about root canals being very profitable for dentists.