What is root canal treatment?

Dentists perform root canal treatments on patients with infected teeth where bacterial decay has reached the nerve inside, causing the nerve to die or get infected. When this happens, patients will experience bad toothaches and a decision will have to be made on whether the affected tooth is worth saving. If the decay is caught early, a root canal procedure is performed to save the tooth.

During the procedure, the entire nerve inside the tooth will be cleaned out and sterilized. In order to prevent any future infection, a filling will be put in place so that nothing will be able to seep into the empty space. Once this is completed, your root canal procedure is virtually over. With either a filling or a crown, a patient is able to use the affected tooth normally. One of the crucial reasons behind the need to perform a root canal procedure is to save the tooth.

In a root canal procedure, the part of the tooth which gets removed is known as the dental pulp. It is a bundle of nerves and blood vessels which have the job of providing sensation and blood supply to the inside of the tooth. Once this bundle gets infected, there’s nothing that antibiotics can do to save it. Since this area consists of a very small blood vessel, there simply isn’t enough of a blood supply to heal the infection with antibiotics. Similar to the appendix, once the dental pulp is infected, the only option is to take it out. As a result, the tooth can be saved.

Dr. Pablo Foncea at Sequoyah Dental Arts, takes great pride in providing the best dental care possible to his patients, not only to give them a beautiful smile, but to make sure their oral health is in excellent condition.



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