Root Canal Therapy
What is a "root canal"?
A root canal is a treatment you recieve either by a specialist called an endondontist, or your dentist. A root canal enables you to keep a tooth that has an infection which has gone into the nerve of the tooth. The infection becomes so bad in the nerve, that the nerve is not going to be able to recover. Therefore what is done in a root canal, is that all the nerve tissue is removed from the canal, the area is sterilized and then a filling material is placed and packed into this nerve canal so that no tissue can grow back into the area. After the root canal is done, the tooth can be restored to the function to give you many more years of tooth function.
How will my doctor determine if I need a root canal?
The most common way to determine whether or not you need a root canal is if you have pain. This is usually confirmed with an x-ray. Another reason for needing a root canal maybe because the tooth can't be restored without some augmentation of the size of the tooth. In that case, some type of a post will need to be placed in the nerve chamber and a root canal will be need to be done before this.
Are root canals painful?
Sometimes a root canal can be painful, but usually a root canal is only painful if you already have pain in that tooth. If you come in to have your root canal with excruciating pain in that tooth, more than likely you're going to have some pain during treatment for that root canal. Normally a root canal is carried out and there is very little pain.
What is the recovery time for a root canal?
After you've had your root canal, you should be out of pain almost immediately. There are occasions where you will still have some discomfort for some time after. Usually it depends on how severe the problem was prior to the root canal. As far as restoring the tooth, we usually wait a week after a root canal before deciding to restore the tooth.
Will a root canal permanently save my tooth?
The percentage of success in root canals is in the high nineties, so when you have a root cancel on your tooth, you can be pretty sure that this root canal is going to work. Whether or not the tooth that's had the root canal stays in your mouth for a long time will be determined by the restoration place, and what kind of forces are on that tooth that has had the root canal.
