Endodontics at Hastings Family Dental
Endodontics involves treating the tissue in and around the tooth. When this tissue is diseased or damaged due to decay or trauma, an endodontic treatment, such as a root canal, is the procedure most often used as a means to save the tooth. A root canal is nothing to fear, and can be done with little or no pain. The procedure treats an abscess, or area of infection at the root of a tooth. If you’ve experienced swelling around a particular tooth, or if chewing or temperature changes cause pain, you may be dealing with an abscessed tooth. A root canal is a two-part process that begins with healing the sight of the infection, and then fixing the tooth, usually with a crown.
Root Canal Therapy
Root canal therapy must be performed when the nerve inside the tooth becomes infected, the only other alternative is an extraction.
The tooth is first numbed and a hole is made in the top of it. The unhealthy nerve is then removed and medication is placed in the tooth. A filling is then put in place of where the nerve was.
After root canal therapy, it is recommended that a crown be put onto the tooth since the tooth is more brittle and requires extra strength. The tooth can then be treated in the same way as other natural teeth.
Root Canal Re-treatment
A root canal re-treatment is preformed only if bacterial infection has re-entered the tooth. Although the infection can cause alot of pain, there are cases when patients aren’t even of the infection because symptoms are not present.
During a root canal the tooth is numbed and the canal system is re-opened and removed. An in-elastic latex-like compound called Gutta-Percha fills the canal along with a filling. The crown will then be replaced and in time the bone will heal where bacteria was removed.
