The prospect of root canal treatment is hardly appealing, as anyone who has previously experienced it will tell you. A procedure used to fix and save decaying or infected teeth, root canal treatment involves the removal of the damaged tissue from the inside of a tooth. Once the pulp underneath the layers is exposed, there is a high chance of inflammation and possible necrosis (pulp death) – as well as severe damage or pain to the tooth.
Root canal treatment can require one or more appointments, and can be carried out by a dental practitioner or endodontist (root canal specialist). Firstly, a full oral examination (including radiographs) will be carried out and if necessary, the use of a local anaesthetic. A latex sheet is positioned around the tooth to ensure the area is kept dry and clean, followed by an opening made at the top of the tooth. Next, the pulp is removed from the pulp chamber and the root canals are then cleaned and shaped in a way that will allow them to be securely sealed. Once the root canals are filled and sealed, the opening in the top of the tooth is filled with a temporary seal – then with future appointments, the progress of the root canal and filling can be monitored and adjusted should further treatment be needed.
Even though the pulp has been removed, your tooth will still be alive due to being nourished by its surrounding tissues. Once permanently restored, as long as proper oral care is maintained, the tooth has a high chance of keeping healthy. Your dentist will provide you with the appropriate aftercare following the operation, but you should also visit your dentist regularly to ensure longevity of your teeth and good oral hygiene.
Root canal treatment has a bad name, but it is actually a really important and effective treatment, which can save a tooth. Often, the alternative to root canal treatment is extraction and it is almost always better to save a tooth rather than remove it. At Devonshire Square Dental Studio in London we have many years of experience in performing root canal procedures and the treatment is much less daunting than it sounds.
About the root canals
The root canals are found in the root section of the tooth. They contain pulp, which is the living tissue of the tooth, including blood vessels and nerves. If the pulp becomes infected or damaged, this causes the tooth to start dying and the tooth becomes susceptible to abscesses, which are usually very painful.
Root canal treatment
Root canal treatment may be recommended if a tooth is infected and the pulp tissue has become damaged. Root canal treatment can help to prevent the spread of infection and the development of abscesses. If the tooth is left untreated, the infection will spread and there may be no other option but to remove the tooth.
The procedure
Many patients are worried about having root canal treatment because they think it will be painful, but the tooth will be anaesthetised before the procedure to prevent any pain. Root canal treatment involves drilling into the tooth to access to root canals. The infected pulp tissue is removed and the tooth is cleaned thoroughly to ensure that no infected tissue is left behind. The root canals are then sealed using dental filling material to prevent the infection from spreading. A temporary crown is usually fitted and then the patient is advised to come back to the surgery to have the permanent crown fitted.
Root canal treatment should not be painful and we do everything we can to help you feel as relaxed and comfortable as possible.
When a tooth is infected, there is a danger of the infection spreading and causing such extensive damage that there is little choice but to extract the tooth. Root canal treatment is a procedure that can be used to save an infected tooth and prevent the need for extraction.
What does the root canal treatment procedure involve?
The root canal treatment procedure aims to rid a tooth of infection and stop the infection spreading. It includes removing decayed tissue from the root canals and cleaning, filling and sealing them to prevent bacteria from reaching the rest of the tooth. Root canal treatment is carried out once the tooth has been numbed using local anaesthetic and this ensures that you don’t feel any pain during treatment. We will then clear the decayed tissue from the root canals. Once they have been cleaned thoroughly, they will be filled with gutta percha, a dental filling material, and then sealed. It is then commonplace to fit a crown, although a temporary crown is usually placed over the tooth at this stage. A brand new crown is normally fitted about two weeks later.
Why would I have to have root canal treatment?
Root canal treatment is generally recommended when a dental infection has reached the pulp tissue of the tooth. The pulp contains the living tissue of the tooth, including the blood vessels and nerves and once it is infected, there is a risk that the tooth will die and an increased risk of the infection spreading and contributing to the formation of dental abscesses. Root canal treatment is a means of saving the tooth as well as preventing patients from developing abscesses, which can be extremely painful.
Does root canal treatment hurt?
Some patients recoil in terror when you say the words root and canal in the same sentence, but this is actually a very successful procedure and we numb the tooth first, so you won’t feel any discomfort. We endeavor to make you feel comfortable and in the majority of cases, patients leave thinking it was much less scary than they thought!
Root canal treatment is something many people have heard of, however they don’t quite know what it is or what causes a person to need such treatment. Well firstly, let’s just say it isn’t as scary as many think it is, but the cause of the root canal treatment can be quite painful if not treated.
Let’s talk roots
Roots hold your teeth in place and contain canals, which in turn contain a pulp chamber that stocks the living tissues. As this pulp contains the nerves, cells, blood vessels and fibres if they become injured, contaminated or damaged, your tooth can in turn start to die. Once this has happened it leaves your tooth vulnerable to infection, which can cause a lot of pain.
So if this does happen then you will most likely need a root canal treatment, a procedure that involves removing the degenerated tissue within the root canal, and then sealing it to prevent further infection. The root canal treatment can often be useful to save decayed teeth.
What does the procedure involve?
The procedure involved in a root canal is pretty straightforward. Before the actual process your dentist will take X-rays to help determine the number of roots and identify the infection symptoms. You may then have a rubber dam placed; this is to make the process more relaxing for you and can also reduce the risks of re-infection in the root canals afterwards.
After drilling into the tooth to access the canals, narrow filing instruments will be used to carry out the procedure by removing any decayed pulp. Any debris left over will then be removed with irrigation fluid before the root canals are sealed.
Crowns or inlays may be placed after for a variety of reasons. Teeth that have undergone this treatment may appear darker but can be bleached. Contact the team at Clifton Dental Studio in Bristol for more information.
From time to time, all of us will suffer from some form of tooth decay at some point in our lives, but if we catch it quickly, it will only take a filling in order to re-balance the mouth again. However, if the decay is allowed to advance, it will eat into the tooth and infect everything inside, from the pulp to the roots and then in order to save the tooth, you will need root canal treatment. This sounds nasty (in the past it could be), but laser surgery can have you in and out of the chair painlessly before you know it. It involves a total clearout of the tooth; the pulp will be first to go and then the roots will follow. After this, the hollow inside of the tooth will be disinfected and then filled up again; in severe cases, the tooth may have to be rebuilt using a crown. Having this done will stave off periodontal disease and help to avoid the more serious issue of an abscess breaking out and poisoning your bloodstream. If you want more information on this procedure and how to avoid it in the first place, then tap-up Clifton Dental of Bristol; they cover the Weston-super-Mare area and give the best advice around.
Tooth decay is one of those never ending issues that will forever threaten the health of your mouth until the day you die in Swindon. It starts quite silently behind the scenes with the acids from food and drink eating away at the enamel of your teeth. If it gets hold, you may suffer from pain in your teeth whenever you bite on them or they are exposed to changes in temperature; at this stage you may get away with a filling, but if the decay is allowed to go further, it will infect the inside of your teeth and get into the roots. At this juncture, the only way you can save your tooth is to have root canal treatment and although it sounds gruesome, modern dental technology can have you cleaned up in around half an hour. It involves the removal of the pulp inside the tooth and then the infected roots. Only then can your dentist fill the tooth after a thorough cleaning and seal the tooth with a filling: in serious cases the tooth may require a crown fitted to restore the tooth to its former size and shape. This treatment isn’t as bad as histories dictates, and if you want to know more about the how’s, the why’s and where you can get the treatment done where you live, then give the Clifton Dental Studio a call over in Bristol, for they serve the area and they know all about dental decay.
Your teeth are very complex, which makes them very vulnerable to attack from infection, and though you will try your best to ensure that they are free from plaque and other bacteria, sometimes something may break through, such as cavities or caries- tooth decay. In the early stages of this, your tooth will become very sensitive to changes in temperature or in fact, anything touching it and you will suffer from shooting pain through the tooth. This means that the pulp inside your tooth has become inflamed, a condition known as reversible pulpitis. If you maintain visits to your dentist, signs of this will have been spotted in an x-ray and then be treated accordingly. Normally, this can be rectified with a filling and after a few days, the pain will subside as the pulp inside the tooth recovers. If however you allow the problem to continue, the pulp will become infected and you will then need a root canal to save your tooth. For all you need to know about this condition and other forms of tooth decay in Bristol, you should give the Clifton dental studio a call.
Let’s start this by trying to dispel some of the urban legends that have sprung up around Weston-super-Mare about root canal treatment. Once upon a time in the days of yore and poor oral hygiene that was the cause of many a tooth to decay, dentists were still trying out new ideas to help ease the passage of their patients with their dental health. Some of it worked, some of it didn’t. However some of it was also painful and that was because dentists had great ideas about doing things, they just didn’t have the right tools to do it with, which made things like root canals a bit ‘hit or miss’…literally, because the removal of infected roots can be difficult, not only because they grow in all manner of ways, but it could make getting in there with a drill almost impossible, which meant that dentists would have to come in through the side of the tooth, through the gum….Ouch! However, technology has now taken this medieval treatment and given it a welcome new lease of life, for the laser has arrived and it works wonderfully on previously awkward treatments like this. Once the dead pulp has been removed, the laser can get rid of the roots in seconds and painlessly too. Then the tooth can be capped with a beautiful new crown and you live together happily ever after. If you have any concerns about tooth decay. Or want to know about this and laser treatments, then you should call Clifton Dental in Bristol, as they cover this area of the West Country.
Root canals are a routine procedure aimed to help patients suffering from the painful condition of an abscessed tooth. A root canal is surgery that targets the infection at the root of the tooth, a deep-seated infection that has either been caused by severe tooth decay or some form of tooth trauma.
The root canal system is made up of the dental pulp and spans the length of the crown of the tooth to the very bottom of the root. The dental pulp is soft tissue that contains small blood vessels and bundles of nerves. When bacteria enter the pulp they instantly begin to multiply and the chemicals they produce are released from the end of the root through a small hole that is used by the blood vessels and nerves to enter the tooth. This process cannot be stopped as the passage is free from obstacles, allowing the bacteria to move freely, resulting in badly inflamed gingival tissue around the decaying or traumatised tooth.
Root canal surgery involves draining the infection from inside the root, then filling and sealing the root canal system with either a filling or a crown. In many cases, your dentist in Weston-super-mare will also prescribe you with a supply of antibiotics, just to make sure the infection has been exterminated.
Local anaesthetic is usually used in all root canal surgery so you should not experience any pain. Root canals are in fact very similar to the placement of normal dental fillings, the experience should not be any more traumatic than that. Normally, a decaying or damaged tooth can live for another ten years after root canal treatment. All of the facts about this treatment can be found through Clifton Dental of Bristol , so ask your dentist.
If you want to talk about ‘bad press’ in Weston-super-mare, then listen to some of the tragic tales that are bandied around on the subject of root canal treatment. Yes it isn’t the easiest of things to have done as it involves a dentist removing the root from inside the tooth so that it can be crowned and saved from decay- it will also save the tooth in the long run and these modern dental darlings can offer you the latest laser treatment that will do the job in a jiffy and save you from the pain that a drill would have caused in the old days. But here is a pitch for you: yes the dentist is able to do things like never before and get you out of a muddy rut. But how comes you were in that rut in the first place? Sheer laziness and poor oral hygiene spring to mind, and carelessness over a sustained period of time where a dental cavity has been ignored by you, and clearly, your lack of keeping up appointments at your dentists has led to this dilemma. A root canal is worth having as it prolongs the health of the tooth and prevents decay spreading into the other teeth. It is only a black and white procedure- it does what it is meant to do, but you should really take a good hard look at yourself before you go ‘slaying’ it off as a painful treatment because it was you that got you into the chair in the first place.
Dr Gerrard is a Bristol based Cosmetic dentist with many years of experience and is one of only a small number of dentists accredited by The British Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry
