Root Canal Treatment
Endodontics, which is commonly known as root canal therapy, is the branch of dentistry that focuses on the dental pulp and soft tissues inside every tooth. Its purpose is to save a natural tooth, heal infection, and to relieve pain.
Did you know that more than 14 million teeth receive endodontic treatment each year? By choosing endodontic treatment, you are making the decision to keep your natural teeth, which is quite crucial when it comes to the following;
- Chew a variety of foods so that you don’t have to give up your favourites and so that you receive a full range of nutrition – no compromising due to discomfort and inability to chew
- Bite cleanly and confidently – no avoiding foods, especially in public, which allows you to relax and enjoy meals in the company of friends and colleagues
- Speak clearly and without pain
- Laugh with ease and confidence – no more covering your mouth due to the embarrassment of discoloured teeth or pain
Beneath the hard enamel exterior of your tooth, there is a canal that contains what we call “pulp” the soft interior of the tooth. Pulp is made up of blood vessels, nerves, and connective tissue. Because the pulp does most of its work during tooth development, its job is pretty much done by the time you are an adult. That’s why, fortunately, adult teeth can survive just fine without pulp. They do this by drawing nutrients from surrounding tissues. And that’s why, when tooth pulp becomes inflamed or infected, often the choice of treatment includes removing the remaining pulp and along with it, the infection.
Reasons For Infection and Inflammation
- Deep Decay – When many people think of cavities, they think of them as only affecting the surface of a tooth or tooth root. But what can happen if the decay is not detected and removed and the resulting damage repaired, is that the decay will continue to spread, reaching the interior of the tooth. When it does, the infection begins to involve the nerve and surrounding tissues, causing inflammation, further infection, and pain.
- Tooth Fractures – Many of us have fine vertical cracks on the surface of our teeth. They’re called craze lines. They are very superficial and are not serious, they don’t affect the health or function of teeth and require no treatment. But when the cracks are fractures; actual breaks in the hard enamel that protects the inner tooth pulp, that’s where root canal therapy comes in as the sensitive nerve is exposed to bacteria in the mouth, food, and varying extreme temperatures (when you drink hot coffee or eat cold ice cream, for example). The result is pain. When a tooth fracture originates in the tooth root, it may not be noticeable to you until infection in the bone or gums sets in.
- Trauma/Injury – If a tooth sustains trauma (for example, impact during sports or severe decay), the tooth nerve may die. When this happens, the pulp inside the tooth needs to be removed and replaced with a filler to save it and prevent tooth loss.
When these things happen, you may experience several symptoms and may not be able to tell what tooth is involved:
- Severe pain when chewing – you may find yourself chewing on only one side of your mouth, or worse yet, modifying your diet to soft foods only
- Pain that becomes worse when you bite – you may find yourself avoiding food as much as possible
- Sensitivity to cold and hot foods and drinks – again, you may switch your diet to the exclusion of nutrients and development of dehydration
- Sore gums which may be a constant irritant and bring continual discomfort
- Discoloured gums
- Small pimple-like bumps on your gums due to infection.
As DentaBRIT, when we recommend a root canal treatment, there are two things we aim for : 1) To get you out you out of pain quickly and permanently, 2) Save your tooth.
Why we want to relieve your pain immediately is easily understood! But why are we so focused on saving your tooth? It’s because when you’re missing a tooth, the neighbouring teeth must work harder to help you chew and bite, and the extra stress may cause them to fracture. Remaining teeth will also drift into the gap left behind by the missing tooth, negatively affecting the way your teeth and jaws fit together, which can cause jaw and face pain, difficulty eating and speaking, and more!
We know that for some people, endodontics or root canal therapy has a bad reputation, but we can guarantee that’s a hangover from days long gone.
Once having completed your endodontic treatment, you’ll be out of pain and your beautiful smile will return. You won’t have to do anything special for aftercare. Brush twice a day and floss once a day like you already do.
Is there an alternative treatment to root canals?
An abscess or infection in your tooth is extremely dangerous and considered an urgent health matter. Many people think of root canals as some sort of ‘lesser evil’ to end excruciating dental pain. More important than that, root canals remove an infection that can spread and become life-threatening, requiring much more urgent and invasive care. This is why we work tirelessly to fight the reputation that root canal therapy has gained and why your comfort and peace-of-mind is so important to us.
If you think you may have an infection but you really don’t want a root canal, we strongly encourage you to reach out to us anyway. We will not perform any procedure without your full understanding and consent and may have alternative options for you with the ultimate goal of resolving your infection.