This is mostly concerned with the treatment of the dental pulp and the tissues surrounding the root of a tooth that becomes injured or diseased. You will commonly hear endodontic treatment also being referred to as root canal treatment. This treatment will be required to save a likely or an already damaged tooth (caused by a deep cavity or injury that cracks the tooth).
When a damaged tooth is left untreated, the damaged pulp inside the tooth can cause an infection to the bone surrounding the tooth and cause swelling and pain. Our dentists will therefore have to perform a root canal treatment to save it. Completing the tooth’s treatment will set the stage for your body’s healing process to take place as effectively as possible and allow the tissues surrounding your tooth to maintain a healthy state.
A root canal treatment is basically a two-staged process. The doctors will remove the pulp from the centre of the tooth and then fill the pulp cavity. This will prevent the development of the painful infection and stop it from spreading to the bone surrounding the tooth and to other teeth. Depending on how much infection there is, they may put you on medication (antibiotics) before your tooth can be worked on.
The procedure itself:
- Cleansing the tooth’s interior – The first portion of the procedure removes compromised tissues an/or contaminants from within a tooth’s nerve space.
- Sealing off the treated are – The procedure is completed by filling in and sealing off the cleansed space, so contaminants can’t leak back in.
If you’re about to have your first root canal treatment, you might be feeling nervous about the whole thing. Don’t worry, all will be revealed in a step-by-step walk-through of the treatment at the dental clinic. Knowing what will happen ahead of time is more than half the battle.
So let’s start by dispelling a common myth. Root canal treatment doesn’t cause pain, it relieves it! And before having a root canal treatment, we will give you a local anaesthetic. This means the procedure won’t be painful and will be no more unpleasant than having a filling.
The value of a root canal treatment is to help you preserve your own teeth and continue eating the foods you love. The treatment will also help you avoid the cost of an artificial tooth replacement and limit the need for ongoing dental work.
Root canal treatment is usually successful. With proper care, most teeth that have a root canal treatment can last as long as natural teeth. In about nine out of ten cases, a tooth can survive for up to ten years after a root canal treatment.