ROOT CANAL TREATMENT
Root canal or endodontic treatment of a tooth is a means of keeping a tooth instead of having the tooth extracted.
Inside a tooth is a very fine nerve structure that may die, causing a severe toothache or abscess. Several things can make a tooth become non-vital, such as trauma to the tooth, deep fillings, decay, a tooth breaking or infection. Occasionally the tooth can die for no apparent reason.
Signs that your tooth’s nerve structure may be damaged include:
- Severe facial or tooth pain
- Swelling or a lump beside a tooth
- If you have had a knock to a front tooth you may notice that it has started to change colour and become dark.
- In some cases there is no pain and a routine exam/X-ray taken by a dentist may identify an infection or abscess.
ROOT CANAL TREATMENT PROCESS
When you make an appointment with your dentist the tooth or the painful area will be carefully checked, special tests done and X-rays will be taken to help locate the problem tooth. Sometimes it can be quite difficult to identify which tooth is causing the pain due to pain referral. Pain referral is where pain caused by your tooth’s infection is experienced away from the causative site (e.g. ear ache or jaw ache).
Local anaesthetic and pain relief medications are used to make the tooth comfortable until it is completely pain free.
To access the root canals a small hole is drilled through the top of the tooth. Decayed tooth tissue is carefully removed.
Often a plastic sheet of material called a rubber dam is placed over the tooth and mouth. This helps with keeping the tooth clean, which is the aim of a root canal treatment.
Very fine files are used to clean and shape the inside of the tooth. The tooth is washed with a sterilizing solution and the tooth measured for length.
The procedure may take two (or more) appointments. In between appointments your tooth will have a temporary filling and medication will be placed in the root canal to clear any infection. Antibiotics may also be used.
The root canal is filled with a material called gutta percha and a dental filling placed on top.
ROOT CANAL TREATMENT COMPLICATIONS
If the canals can be fully accessed and cleaned and the tooth properly restored, then the success rate is very high.
The nerve is made up of lots of fine canals. Sometimes is it not possible to find all the canals, get to the end of the canals or get enough access to fully clean the tooth. This can result in some infection and pain remaining.
If an abscess cannot be removed, a surgical procedure or referral to an endodontic specialist may be necessary.
Very fine files and instruments are used during the procedure. With the canals being so fine and curved occasionally a small piece of file may break. When it can’t be retrieved it may be sealed into the root canal with the filling material.
A root canal tooth is more brittle than a healthy tooth. The filling on top of the tooth or the whole tooth can break. For this reason it is often recommended that the tooth is crowned after the root filling to try to make it as strong as possible.
The tooth may go dark after root canal treatment. There are ways to improve this during root canal preparation as well as with bleaching, or covering the darkness with crowns.
If you would like to arrange your initial consultation or if you wish to understand more about our root canal services please contact us at our Mount Maunganui or Te Puke practice.