What Is Root Canal Therapy and Why May You Need One?
Root canal therapy is a dental procedure to treat infection at your tooth center. Root canals are not painful and help save a tooth that might otherwise need extraction.
What Makes Root Canals Essential?
The bacteria in your mouth penetrate your tooth, infecting its soft center, the dental pulp. The infection can occur from untreated tooth decay, leaky fillings, and tooth damage from trauma resulting from falls.
Infected or inflamed dental pulp can cause excruciating pain and temperature sensitivity making it challenging for you to perform everyday activities without distraction from the discomfort. In addition, the pain in a specific tooth and the infection can spread through your entire body when the bacteria enter your bloodstream to cause various complications like cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis, diabetes, et cetera.
If you refuse to receive root canal therapy near you, the dentist nearby has no alternative other than removing the tooth and suggesting replacing it with implants or dental bridges. Therefore if you have dental pulp infections, you must accept the dentist’s proposal to treat the tooth for its preservation by undergoing a root canal.
When Does a Root Canal Become Necessary?
Root canal therapy becomes necessary when the dentist in Northlake, IL, takes x-rays to identify the cause of your discomfort and discovers that your dental pulp has sustained damage because of bacterial infection. Dental pulp infections by bacteria enable microorganisms to multiply and spread. The symptoms of pulp infections include pain when eating or drinking hot or cold foods, biting or chewing, or a loose tooth.
When the infection advances, the pain disappears with the death of the pulp. Your tooth appears to have healed, but the infection spreads to the root canals. Eventually, you experience additional symptoms such as pain when chewing and biting returning, gum swelling near the affected tooth, swollen cheeks or jaws, tooth discoloration, and oozing pus from the infected tooth.
It is essential to see the Northlake dentist when you develop a toothache. If you have a dental pulp infection, the soft center of your tooth cannot heal itself. Therefore, leaving the infected tooth in its place can worsen your condition. In addition, if the infection advances, the chances of a root canal succeeding diminish and may result in a recommendation for tooth extraction.
Antibiotics are ineffective against bacterial infections in managing root canals. Antibiotics are best for conditions spreading beyond the root and resulting in swelling.
The Root Canal Procedure
When treating the infection in your tooth, root canal therapy in Northlake, IL, must remove the bacteria within the tooth. The dentist can accomplish this task by eliminating the bacteria from the canals by performing therapy or extracting the tooth.
Dentists don’t suggest removing the tooth because you should retain your natural teeth for as long as possible.
Before undergoing a root canal, you will receive local anesthesia near the affected tooth to numb the surrounding gums and structures to ensure the procedure is no more painful than getting a tooth filled. The dentist will remove the bacteria and the infected dental pulp from inside the tooth before filling and sealing it with a temporary filling. The inflamed tissue near the tooth will heal naturally after some time. Root canals are incredibly successful, with 90 percent of treated teeth surviving for over a decade.
Recovery from Root Canal Therapy
After receiving a relatively painless root canal in Northlake, you must care for your teeth during recovery. Although the dentist provides after-care instructions, it helps to avoid biting on complex foods until you restore your tooth with a dental crown. While you will experience discomfort after the therapy, you can console yourself by knowing that the infection in your tooth is no longer present. In addition, you can take painkillers to alleviate the discomfort and use ice packs on the cheeks for swelling that will develop.
You can prevent the need for another root canal by keeping your teeth clean, avoiding sugary and starchy foods, and quitting smoking if you do.
You will recover from root canal therapy in about ten days. You can visit your regular dentist to restore the tooth with a dental crown which becomes essential because the treatment renders your tooth fragile and prone to breakage and fractures. After restoring your tooth, you can continue using it like your remaining teeth for many years with optimal functionality.
Smiles of Northlake perform numerous root canal treatments helping patients preserve their natural teeth instead of extracting them because of dental pulp infections. If you have excruciating pain in a specific tooth, kindly arrange a meeting with them to receive painless root canal therapy.