Endodontic Therapy
What is a Root Canal?
(Endodontic Therapy)
Root canal treatment involves removing infected or dead pulp from your tooth. It is often the only alternative to extracting an abscessed tooth that may be causing pain or swelling. If left untreated, an abscessed tooth can cause serious oral health or systemic problems.
After a root canal treatment, your tooth will be either filled or crowned to look, feel and work as much like a natural tooth as possible.
How is a Root Canal procedure done?
It is similar to a filling procedure but the filling is done to the pulp chamber instead. The first step is to freeze the tooth so that no pain is felt during the procedure. Next after isolating the tooth a small access hole is created in the tooth to get at the infected soft tissue inside. This infected tissue is cleaned out and once the tooth is disinfected it is then filled with a biologically inert material called Gutta Percha. Afterwards, the tooth is restored with a crown or filling for protection.
Often people think that a root canal treatment is going to be painful, however, most patients report that they are very comfortable during the procedure, we even regularly have people fall asleep during the course of treatment.
For the first few days after treatment, you might experience a mild ache in your tooth, especially if there was pain or infection before the procedure. But after this normally the tooth will return to normal.
