Root Canal: Avoiding Dental Problems
MikeA January 31st, 2010
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Foreword By Mike Alexander
This excellent article is by Shelton Graham and is all about that well known, but generally feared, dental treatment known as a ‘root canal’. If you are due for such a treatment, this article may allay some of your fears and will certainly widen your knowledge about it. For more information, why not click on the links that appear in the last paragraph under the heading About The Author.
Feared Treatment
- Image via Wikipedia
It’s the most feared dental treatment of all. Patients avoid going to the dentist because they don’t want to hear that they need a root canal. They would rather have the tooth removed, removed forever, with a permanent space, than go through the pain of a root canal. In fact, a root canal often isn’t unpleasant but, in most instances, the discomfort related to the tooth infection subsides in a matter of days after the treatment is complete.
When It’s Necessary
Root canal treatment is necessary when the nerve tissue of the tooth, or pulp, gets infected or dies. The only real way to get rid of the infection is to remove the source of the infection, the infected or dead pulp tissue. There are two ways to remove pulp tissue. The initial way is to get rid of the whole tooth, and the pulp tissue includes it. The second better way to remove infected pulp tissue is to perform root canal treatment. In this process your dentist removes the infected pulp tissue while leaving the remainder of the tooth intact.
How It Works
A root canal is what a dentist does to wash out and remove only the pulp tissue of the tooth. Your dentist will first give you anesthetic to numb the tooth, so you should be comfortable in the complete procedure. To maintain a dry field and make sure the pulp does not become further tarnished with saliva and other bacteria, your dentist will place a protective barrier around the tooth, known as a rubber dam, to isolate it and keep it clean. Once the tooth is isolated, your dentist will create an opening in the top of the tooth to use the pulp tissue. Then, using tiny files, your dentist will scrape the interior of the tooth and the walls of the pulp canal space to remove any infected or dead nerve tissue. Your dentist will repeat this part of the process several times with files of varying dimensions and shapes to get rid of a sufficient amount of pulp tissue and adequately clean the nerve canal space.
To determine how deep to go with each set of files, your dentist may use a device called a peak locator. This machine tells your dentist how far to go with each file and when the file reaches the end of the canal.
Finishing Up
Now the canal spaces are cleansed and dry, the empty spaces have to be filled. A rubber material, called gutta percha, is placed in each canal to fill the gap left by the pulp tissue. The access area your dentist made through the pinnacle of the tooth also needs to be filled. A silver amalgam or white composite restoration fills in the rest of the tooth. Eventually, an abiding restoration needs to be made to offer protection to the brittle tooth from splitting. Your dentist will make a crown for the tooth, a restoration made from metal alloys and stiff porcelain, to surround the tooth and protect it from breaking.
A few days after the root canal treatment, your toothache should be over, and you still have your tooth!
About The Author
If you liked this write up about Dentist in Dallas, then you should see this curious internet site centered around Dentist in dallas.
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- Laura Flanders: The F Word: In Defense of Root Canals (huffingtonpost.com)
- Dental Preparedness, by Pat (survivalblog.com)
- Why does my tooth that I had a root canal on suddenly start hurting? (bizequityblog.com)
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