Underneath the hard enamel of your teeth there are many living nerves. When your teeth decay there is the risk that the pulp and the nerves can become infected, killing the tooth off. One way to save a dying tooth is with root canal therapy.
Root canals are incredibly complex. Before your dentist performs the procedure he will want to examine your tooth and perform an x-ray to assess the extent of the damage. You may then be given a course of antibiotics in order to clear up any infection that is currently present. After this, you will be given a local anesthetic so that the dentist can work on your tooth without causing too much discomfort.
Your dentist will then open up the top of the tooth, and remove any pulp inside. If you have an abscess, it will be drained at the same time.
Once the inside of the tooth has been cleared out, the next step is to hollow out the roots and then fill them to prevent further infection.
It is essential that the roots are filled in properly, because if they are not then more bacteria could get into the root canals, and they could become infected. Infection of a hollowed out canal is even worse than infection of the canal when it is still intact, because the dead, hollow root canal is an anaerobic environment and it does not get any blood supply, therefore the body’s immune system cannot tackle the infection.
In some cases, the treatment may require several sessions to hollow out all of the roots. If this is the case then the dentist will carry out a temporary filling in between sessions, to protect the tooth from infection. They will also provide antibiotics if necessary.
Depending on the reason that the root canal therapy was necessary, the hollowed out tooth may become discolored. Talk to your dentist if you are not happy with the way that the tooth looks. They will be able to offer advice on the best ways to treat the discoloration without damaging the tooth.
There are a number of cosmetic procedures that may be suitable, but you will need to wait for your mouth to heal after the root canal treatment before any of these are carried out. That could take a while if you need more than one session to fully fill the tooth.
If you need a local Rochester, NY dentist to do your root canal contact the dentists at emergencydentistrochesterny.com for a consultation and examination.