Root Canal Treatment to Save Your Tooth

It is the most feared dental treatment of all. Patients avoid going to the dentist because they don’t want to hear that they need a root canal. They would rather have the tooth extracted, removed forever, with an everlasting space, than go thru the pain of a root canal. In fact, a root canal usually isn’t agonizing and, in most examples, the pain related to the tooth infection subsides in a matter of days after the treatment is complete.

Root canal treatment is needed when the nerve tissue of the tooth, or pulp, becomes infected or dies. The only real way to remove the infection is to remove the source of the infection, the infected or dead pulp tissue. There are two ways to remove pulp tissue. The initial way is to remove the whole tooth, and the pulp tissue includes it. The second smarter way to get rid of infected pulp tissue is to perform root canal treatment. In this process your dentist removes the infected pulp tissue while leaving the rest of the tooth intact.

A root canal is what a dentist does to clean out and remove only the pulp tissue of the tooth. Your dentist will first give you anesthetic to numb the tooth, so you should be comfortable during the entire procedure. To maintain a dry field and make sure the pulp does not become further polluted with saliva and other bacteria, your dentist will place a protective barrier around the tooth, known as a rubber dam, to isolate it and keep it clean. Once the tooth is isolated, your dentist will create an opening in the top of the tooth to use the pulp tissue. Then, using miniscule files, your dentist will scrape the interior of the tooth and the walls of the pulp canal space to get rid of any infected or dead nerve tissue. Your dentist will repeat this part of the procedure several times with files of varying sizes and shapes to get rid of an adequate quantity of pulp tissue and adequately clean the nerve canal space.

To establish how deep to go with each set of files, your dentist may employ a device called an apex locator. This machine tells your dentist how far to go with each file and when the file reaches the end of the canal.

Now the canal spaces are cleansed and dry, the empty spaces need to be filled. A rubber material, called gutta percha, is placed in each canal to fill the gap left by the pulp tissue. The access area your dentist made thru the top of the tooth also needs to be filled. A silver amalgam or white composite restoration fills in the rest of the tooth. Ultimately, an abiding restoration needs to be made to protect the crisp tooth from splitting. Your dentist will make a crown for the tooth, a restoration made from metal alloys and stiff porcelain, to surround the tooth and protect it from breaking.

A pair days after the root canal treatment, your toothache should be dumped, and you continue to have your tooth!

If you enjoyed this write up about Dallas Dentist, then you should go over this fantastic website centered around Dallas area dentist.

Previous post:

Next post: