Root canal treatment in Country Hills is a dental procedure that gets a bum rap. If you listened only to your grandparents, you’d think and believe it was painful, risky and no better than getting a tooth pulled. Hey, we love your grandpa and grandma lots, but in this case, they’re just plain wrong – and out of date. Today’s modern and sophisticated root canal treatment near you is painless. Better still, it saves teeth from unnecessary extractions by removing all infected material from inside an infected tooth to eliminate the symptoms of infections and protect your health. Here’s what your grandparents don’t know about root canals today. When you’re done reading, let them know, okay? At NorthPointe Dental Clinic, we’re here for patients of all ages.
Root canals performed by a dentist in Country Hills are a procedure to remove the pulp from the center of an infected tooth’s interior. When healthy, that pulp consists of nerves, connective tissues and blood vessels that feed and sustain the tooth. When badly infected, though, that material essentially rots and will eventually die and even poison other tissues in your mouth and body.
What are signs you may need a root canal?
The most common signs of a root canal are pain in your tooth (though pain is not present in some situations), swelling in your gums, the sensation of heat affecting your gums, and even a tooth darkening because it is beginning to die from the inside out. The appearance of a pimple-like bump on your gums along with a foul taste is also a clear indication of a serious infection that may require that you undergo a root canal from a dentist near you.
If you have any of these symptoms, make an appointment with a dentist near you right away. Even if you don’t need a root canal, there’s obviously something untoward going on in that tooth. Your dentist and tier staff will figure out exactly what that is and put it right. To confirm the diagnosis and develop a treatment plan, they’ll conduct a thorough examination and likely take x-rays to get a close look at the hidden and interior areas of your tooth.
What will happen next?
If your dentist confirms that a root canal can eliminate the infection, save the tooth, eliminate the need for an extraction and avoid the need to get a bridge, denture or implant to replace a pulled tooth, they’ll explain what will happen during the root canal procedure.
Just like no two people are exactly the same, no two teeth are identical. The teeth and the structures inside those teeth vary from person to person, jaw to jaw and tooth to tooth. As a general rule, though, root canal treatment consists of several stages – all of which take place only after the areas being treated are completely numbed so you’ll feel no pain. (You can even ask your dentist to help you relax further by providing sedation dentistry at a level that can be tailored to your needs.
First, your dentist will make a small hole in the crown of your tooth. Second, using tiny but precise implements, your dentist will remove all infected material from that tooth. Third, your dentist and their staff will clean and disinfect the interior of your tooth to ensure that it is infection-free and to minimize the risk of reinfection. Before sealing up the tooth, the fourth step will be to fill the tooth with a rubbery substance called gutta-percha. The fifth step will then be to fill the hole made in the crown of your tooth. Once you’ve fully healed from your procedure, your dentist will make an appointment for the lucky seventh step – to prepare a crown that will be placed over that tooth in the eighth and final step. That crown will strengthen and protect your tooth so you’ll never know there was an issue with it – except you’ll notice that you don’t have any pain, foul taste, or swelling in your mouth or jaw anymore.