Root Canal Treatment

Root Canal Therapy
A root canal is necessary when the pulp becomes inflamed or infected. This can be the result of many things such as deep decay, repeated dental procedures, cracked tooth, or even trauma can cause pulpal damage. Signs of pulpal damage include: prolonged sensitivity to heat and cold, discoloration, or swelling of the gums. However, sometimes there are no symptoms.

Procedure Steps:
1.   The dentist examines and x-rays the tooth. Then administers the local anesthetic. After the tooth is numb, the dentist places a plastic protective sheet called “dental dam” over the area to isolate the tooth and keep it clean and free of saliva during the procedure. This “dental dam” also prevents everything we use, including all the solutions and sharp instruments, to go down to the patient’s throat.

2. The dentist makes an opening in the crown of the tooth. Very small instruments are used to clean the pulp from the pulp chamber and shape the root canals before the next step.

3.  After the space is clean and shaped, the dentist fills the root canals with a biocompatible material, usually a rubber-like material called gutta-percha. The gutta-percha is placed with a sealer cement to ensure complete filling of small spaces between the gutta-percha points. In most cases, a temporary filling is placed close to the opening. The temporary filling will be removed by your general dentist before the tooth is restored. Better results can be achieved if sealing of the canal or canals is done the same day as restoration to protect the tooth from recontamination.

Root Canal Re-Treatment
Often, patients are referred to our offices from their regular dentist for Root Canal Re-Treatment. On occasion a root canal will fail. This can happen due to a number of reasons: narrowed, curved, calcified canals, broken or loose fillings, tooth fractures, delayed permanent restoration following treatment, poor restoration that allowed saliva and bacteria to enter the tooth, or even decay that can form just below the gum line where the permanent restoration did not cover.

Discuss your options with your doctor. Once you’ve decided to have a retreatment, the doctor will gain access to your tooth by removing the restoration on it, or if he can, go through the restoration. After that he will remove the filling (gutta-percha) and adhesive (sealer) materials that was previously placed. Then he will clean, sterilize, and examine the canals to try and locate the source of the problem by checking for extra canals or some unusual anatomy that might be the reason for your toothache. After he has cleaned and sterilized, once more he will replace the sealer and gutta-percha in the canals and again place a temporary filling .

Please keep in mind that if the canals on your tooth are too narrowed or blocked, your doctor may recommend an endodontic surgery to remove the end portion of that root.

Post-Operation:
Return to your regular dentist as soon as possible for a final Restoration which in most cases would be a full Crown coverage  after the Dentist doing your root canal gives you the o.k. to do so.

Post-Treatment:
After your Root Canal you may want to rest for a while but 95% of our patients return to work or continue with their daily routines. Chewing or biting hard is not recommended until your tooth has had a final restoration placed. If not, your tooth is at risk of Fracture or Re-decay. It is only recommended for you to maintain good oral hygiene before and after the final restoration is placed to ensure that the Root Canal last as long as your natural teeth

Failed Root Canals:
95% of all Root Canals are successful, but in some cases the tooth doesn’t heal or pain continues the tooth can become diseased even if the root canal was done years before. The most common step to fix this problem would be another root canal in order to re-sterilize the canals with new medications. Sometimes we would rather pack the canals with Calcium Hydroxide based material to ensure all parts of Re-infected Canal has been sterilized before sealing the canals again.