Hope 2012 is treating you well!!!! I can't believe it's almost February, but I love how the days are gradually getting longer. So this week I thought I would talk about a subject that many of you will shudder at and believe to be frightening, ROOT CANALS! What exactly is a root canal? I will break it down for you, and you will be surprised that they really are not that bad :)
Okay folks, so here it goes......
When the nerve in your tooth starts dying; which could be due to a multitude of reasons (decay, fracture, trauma, spontaneous, etc), you begin to feel discomfort. This discomfort could be in the form of extreme sensitivity to cold that lingers, pain to hot temperatures, pain on biting or just simply touching the tooth. Sometimes you'll never experience any pain but will notice a swelling or little pimple on your gums near the tooth, these are all signs that the nerve is or has died.
Once we establish the nerve is dying or has died, we in most cases decide to perform root canal therapy (RCT) on the tooth. An RCT is necessary to clean the area where the nerve once lived and eradicate the extremely strong and dangerous bacteria from the tooth root and bone. We do this by cleaning and shaping the area within the root with a series of files, thereby removing all of the harmful bacteria within the walls of your root and preparing to place a filling material (gutta percha) with a plugger to keep all the bacteria out. After the RCT is completed we need to restore the tooth by placing a filling and/or post and crown to protect the tooth. Root canal treated teeth are very brittle teeth because the blood supply to the tooth is removed when the nerve dies, this is why we like to place crowns on root canal treated teeth to protect them.
See its not that bad!!!
Smiles,
Sarah Jebreil, DDS