Root Canal Therapy

A Step by Step Overview of Your Root Canal

• A Safe Solution If your family dentist has referred you for endodontic treatment, you’re probably concerned about what is involved in the procedure. You can rest assured that it’s a safe and wise investment. It eliminates not only the pain itself that you may be experiencing, but the cause of the pain as well. And by treating the cause of pain, while retaining the natural tooth, you’re choosing the most conservative route-one that will help you maintain your overall dental health for years to come. Further, over 14 million root canal procedures are performed per year, with the success and safety of treatment well documented.
• A Few Short Steps You may be surprised to learn that endodontic treatment, or a root canal procedure, may be done in one visit.
• Unusual Exceptions It’s uncommon to find a tooth damaged beyond what a root canal can repair. However, if the root canals are inaccessible, the root is severely fractured, the tooth doesn’t have adequate bone support, or the tooth cannot be restored, then we may not be able to use traditional endodontic procedures to save the tooth. However, advances in endodontics are making it possible to save teeth that even a few years ago would have been lost. When endodontic treatment is not effective, endodontic surgery may be able to save the tooth.
• Specialized Surgery Your endodontist also has several advanced endodontic options. For instance, if the standard approach is ineffective and inflammation or infection persists around the bony area of your tooth end, your endodontist may perform an in-office apicoectomy surgery, removing the infected tissue as well as the tip end of the tooth root, then sealing the affected a canals. Local anesthetics make the procedure comfortable, and most patients return to their normal activities the next day. Very rarely, the specialist may even choose to extract the tooth, clean and seal the canals, and replant it in position.
• Treating Trauma Sometimes tooth pulp is damaged by a traumatic injury, such as a blow to the mouth. With children, for example, such a blow might cause a root to stop developing. In such cases, your endodontist can perform an apexification technique to stimulate root growth, and then follow up by saving the tooth through routine root canal procedure. Your endodontist is also able to replant teeth that have been knocked entirely out of the sockets!
• Pinpointing Pain It’s not easy to identify the source and cause of oral pain. The mouth is made up of a vast network of nerves, so a damaged or diseased tooth may cause pain in another tooth, in the head itself, or even in the neck or ear area. Endodontist specialize in accurately diagnosing and effectively treating such mystery pains.