Root canal
A root canal is a dental procedure involving the removal of the soft center of the tooth, the pulp. The pulp is made up of nerves, connective tissue, and blood vessels that help the tooth grow.
It’s one of the most dreaded dental procedures that a lot of our patients hate. But it’s important to know that if done properly and well, it’s no more difficult or painful than any other dental procedure. Lots of patients ask what is root canal treatment? Why do I need root canal treatment?, How do I know if I need root canal treatment? What do you do during root canal treatment? And lots more. So I thought I’d shed some light from a dentist’s perspective to provide a helpful step-by-step guide into root canal treatment. So what is root canal treatment? Root canal treatment is a dental procedure that is required when the tooth becomes badly decayed and the nerve and root canal of the tooth is infected. Also known as root canal therapy (RCT for short), the procedure involves cleaning, and medicating an infected nerve or root canal of the tooth and then filling it with a root filling. Without treatment, the blood vessels and nerves inside the tooth become severely infected and that’s when pus and abscesses form. After root canal treatment is can be quite common also for your dentist to recommend placing a crown on the tooth to give it maximum long-term protection.
WHY DO I NEED ROOT CANAL TREATMENT?
You often come to the dentist with a toothache and in pain and your dentist tells you your tooth needs root canal treatment. Why? The purpose of root canal treatment is to eliminate the bacterial infection inside the tooth and to minimise the risk of future reinfections. Even though it is a long and tedious treatment, each stage of root canal treatment is performed to ensure that the risk of reinfection is as low as possible.
Before we can full appreciate what root canal treatment is and why we need it, we first need to understand that there are different parts to the structure of a tooth
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Enamel – the hard layer that covers the top part of a tooth. The enamel is really hard and dense and protects the dentine and pulp from the external environment.
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Dentine – this is the layer underneath the enamel and the dentine makes up the majority of the tooth structure.
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Pulp – this is the middle or inside of the tooth that contains the nerve and blood supply. NOTE: The root canal are the tunnels inside the roots of the tooth that extend from the pulp
If a decayed or broken tooth is left untreated, bacteria enters the root canal and causes an infection of the nerve. Sometimes the infection of the nerve is so severe that an abscess forms inside the mouth. Other times, you may not even notice any pain or discomfort from a tooth that requires root canal treatment. When your tooth needs root canal treatment, it means that the bacteria from tooth decay has gone so deep into the tooth that the nerves and blood supply in the root canal of the tooth is compromised. There is a bacterial infection in the pulp (nerve and blood supply of tooth).
Once a tooth’s pulp and root canal have been compromised by bacteria, there are only 2 options to manage the tooth
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Remove or extract the tooth
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Perform root canal treatment on the tooth to keep it and save it
WHAT HAPPENS IF I DON’T TREAT THE TOOTH?
Severe pain and discomfort is going to be one of the problems of not treating the tooth. Without treatment the blood vessels and nerves inside the tooth become severely infected and that’s when pus and abscesses form. An abscess is swelling full of pus usually located at the end of the root canal because of the build up of the infection. The abscess can be so serious that it causes swelling around the face, eye or the neck. In these circumstances you may need to go straight to the hospital. Other problems to not treating the tooth include bone loss around the roots of the tooth
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abscess forming or pus coming out of the gums adjacent to the tooth that is infected
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severe soreness and pain specific to a tooth
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you can’t eat or chew on the tooth
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high sensitivity to both hot and cold foods and drinks
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spontaneous pain that isn’t triggered by just eating and drinking
WHAT CAN I DO TO PREVENT ROOT CANAL TREATMENT?
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brush 2 times and day and floss daily
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visit your dentist every 6 months for regular check up and cleans. Regular maintenance avoids the major breakdown
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if your dentist tells you there’s tooth decay on a tooth that needs a filling, please book yourself in to get the filling done. The longer you leave the tooth decay, the higher the chance the bacteria spreads and infects the nerve which leads to root canal treatment
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It is important to understand that the cost of a root canal is what you’re going to value in saving and keeping your natural tooth in your mouth.
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Brushing your teeth regularly, flossing regularly and visiting your local dentist every 6 months for regular cleans is going to cost A LOT less than having a root canal
CAN I TAKE ANTIBIOTICS TO FIX A TOOTH REQUIRING ROOT CANAL TREATMENT?
Taking antibiotics is not an option to fix an infected nerve because the tooth is in its own small ecosystem and so the antibiotics that we take can’t reach into the root canal and pulp to heal the tooth from the bacterial infection. The only situations where antibiotics can help are in really deep infections where there may be an abscess associated with the infected tooth or if you experience fevers. If there are any situations where your breathing is compromised or the swelling is very large and painful, please contact your dentist or doctor immediately.
Another reason why antibiotics aren’t always used during root canal treatment procedures is that the process of root canal treatment is what should primarily remove the bacteria from the inside of the tooth.
