Root Canals

When a tooth dies, it often begins to be lingering sensitive to cold things, noticeably painful to hot things, spontaneosly painful, waking you up at night, forcing you to take pain relievers, or can just have a general ache to it. On occasion a chronic infection is not painful, but may include swelling or may show up as a dental abscess in an xray.

Waiting to correct early problems can cause a situation where to create room to align teeth, 4 or more healthy teeth are removed which constricts the overall mouth, crowds out the tongue, alters what would be a broad and healthy smile, and reduces the efficiency of overall chewing. We can prevent this most often with early intervention.

Inside of a tooth there is a blood supply and a nerve. When that supply is cut off by trauma or the tooth is damaged by bacteria from a cavity or fracture for instance, the bacteria invades the little tunnel inside of the tooth and begins to populate into thousands of other bacterias. This infection exits the tooth through the tip of the root and sometimes shows up as a small or very large infection or “abscess” near the root tip.

We must clean out this infection and sterilize the inside of the tooth, and seal off this root tip so no new bacteria may enter. Although there is an estimated 5% chance that the bacteria returns after a root canal, most times the tooth being sterilized and sealed is enough to serve you for many more years and often times a lifetime.