Los Angeles Root Canal Treatment
Learn more about Dental Root Canals...
What is Root Canal Therapy?
A root canal is a treatment performed on a tooth in order to save a tooth that is infected due to a large filling, deep decay, fractured enamel, cracked tooth or trauma.
“Root canal” is the term used to describe the pulp chamber that harbors the nerve inside the tooth.
Why does the tooth need a Root Canal ?
This infection can also create an abscess, a pus-filled cyst that forms at the end of the root tip that can cause bone loss or turn into a fistula that drains through the gum tissue in a form of an opening or a pimple.
What are the signs of a Root Canal?
- Severe throbbing pain
- Swelling and high bite on the tooth
- Hypersensitivity to hot and cold temperature
- Severe pain upon chewing and pressure
- Discolored tooth
Is Root Canal Treatment Painful?
Root canal therapy is used to alleviate pain. The procedure itself is not painful, but patients can experience post operative pain due to prolonged infection and inflammation.
Also since most patients are in severe pain on the day of the procedure, they may associate this pain to the root canal treatment itself.
Is Root Canal Treatment Complicated?
Root canal therapy can be completed in one visit or require several appointments depending on the difficulty of the access the nerve chamber, the root canal anatomy, the ability of the patient to open their mouth, the extent of the infection, the ability to achieve complete anesthesia.
How Successful is Root Canal Therapy?
A root canal has very high success rate, almost 90% of all root canal teeth can last a lifetime if they are properly restored with a post and a crown to prevent further breakdown or fracture of the tooth.
What Can Cause a Root Canal to Fail?
Despite best efforts, some root canal treatments can not achieve long term success or need to be re-treated due to recurrent infection. Several things can cause a root canal to fail.
- An undetected crack in the root
- An undetected accessory canal that has not been cleaned and sealed
- A breakdown of the root canal filler seal thus allowing bacteria to re-enter and re-contaminate the chamber
- A failure to restore the tooth after the root canal thus causing fractured tooth that can not be restored.
Alternatives to Root Canal?
The only alternative to root canal therapy is extraction. Once the infection enters the nerve chamber there is no other treatment to remove that infection, however, saving the natural tooth and restoring it back to function through root canal treatment is the best and least costly alternative.
How can Root Canal Treatment be Prevented?
Preventing a large decay from entering into the pulp and restoring cavities while they are small. Wearing mouth guards to prevent trauma or fractures. Being proactive through regular dental check-ups and catching decay in it’s incipient stages can reduce the need for a root canal procedure.