What if you cannot eat, drink or speak because of the pain in oral structures, including teeth? You may panic and want an immediate solution to this.
No worries because your dentist has an immediate solution for this, known as Root Canal treatment.
You may question whether I need a root canal or if the medicine will work. If you want to know the answer, then keep reading.
Do I Need A Root Canal? Some Obvious Signs
Toothache can be because of multiple ailments, but the most common culprits are caries and dentine hypersensitivity.
In the initial stages, the treatment of the disease is easy and doesn’t require complex procedures, but with time as the disease progresses, an advanced surgical procedure such as root canal treatment is needed.
The most common condition in which a root canal is necessary is when dental X-rays show the involvement of the pulp in bacterial infections.
Once the pulp gets infected by a bacterial infection, it is damaged and inflamed, then the bacteria spreads and multiplies at an exponential rate.
Symptoms
When your enamel and dentine are damaged, you don’t feel much pain, but when your pulp is infected then, you can suffer from
- Pain while performing daily basis oral cavity activities such as drinking, eating(the pain may become worse when eating hot or cold food), speaking, or touching your teeth with a tongue
- If your anterior teeth are damaged, you may also feel pain in biting.
- After some time, the infection kills the pulp completely. You may feel that the symptoms are disappearing, but it’s exactly the opposite as infection has been spread to the root canal system of your oral cavity, and you will experience some advanced symptoms such as
- Pain on eating or drinking anything which is not limited to just one tooth but is felt in multiple teeth of that area
- Observing pus and swollen cheek and jaw
- Affected side temperature rises
- Teeth changing color from white to blue or black
It is always recommended to visit your dentist immediately when you develop a toothache because it can’t be healed automatically if your pulp is infected.
If you leave the infected untreated, the infection through the root canal system spreads to other oral structures, including teeth, jaw, and cheeks, which can worsen with time.
Initially, teeth infection can be controlled with little medical help, but once it spreads to the pulp and root canal system, there are fewer chances that root canal treatment works for you.
Antibiotics and other drugs are only helpful in treating infection limited to dentine or enamel. It doesn’t help with the infection progressing to the pulp.
Why Is There A Need To Remove Pulp?
You may feel that pulp is an essential part of your teeth; in reality, it is because it is a structure that keeps your teeth alive, and without it, teeth will become non-vital.
So why do you need to remove the pulp? When the pulp becomes infected, the infection doesn’t remain limited to the pulp and spreads down the teeth, causing root resorption. The infection from infected teeth may progress to other teeth, jaws, and throat and eventually kill you. If you want to know how much time you have to survive the infection, you can read the article How Long Until a Tooth Infection Kills You?
Some Benefits Of Root Canal
Save Natural Teeth
Many reasons may convince you to go for a root canal treatment, but the main benefit of root canal treatment is that it preserves your natural teeth. You question how possible because your one tooth is non-vital and nonliving.
Your teeth may become nonvital, but it still helps you in the chewing and eating process. In addition, you don’t have to spend thousands of dollars on artificial teeth, dentures, or crowns after a root canal treatment.
You can eat food you love, there will be no need for ongoing dental work, and also, with proper care, a root canal treatment can last lifelong.
Pain-Free Procedure
Another benefit of going for a root canal treatment is its pain-free nature. It is painless, and you don’t have to suffer much during recovery.
If you choose to extract your natural teeth and go for an implant, it will cause much pain, take a longer time for healing, and upset your budget.
With different modern anesthetic medicines such as lidocaine, root canal treatment becomes completely painless, and you don’t feel pain as anesthesia wears off.
Pocket Friendly
If we compare root canal treatment with tooth extraction (because they are the two best treatment plans for a damaged)
Then Tooth extraction consumes much more time in comparison to root canal treatment.
You have to suffer from a follow-up visit, much more pain, and investing in orthodontic equipment such as a denture bridge or implant (as most dental insurance plans cover endodontic treatment fully, but orthodontic treatment is not covered fully).
Aesthetically Appealing Results
Results of root canal treatment are more appealing because a Crown doesn’t cost much and looks and functions completely like a natural tooth. It maintains your aesthetics just like a natural tooth can, and you can smile again with the same confidence.
If your doctor suggests root canal treatment and you are unsure about it, you can always go for a second opinion.
Make sure you go for root canal treatment if necessary because after some time, your other teeth and associated structures will be involved, and then a root canal will not be the treatment for you.
If you still have some questions or are unsure about it, you can visit your near endodontist to get a better insight on root canal treatment.
FAQs
Is root canal treatment painful?
No root canal treatment is not painful with modern anesthetic techniques; you will feel nothing during the treatment. After that, over-the-counter drugs such as Tylenol can help relieve the pain if you feel hypersensitivity.
How many visits are required for a root canal treatment?
Root canal treatment is completed in only two visits, and you can smile with the same confidence again.
What are the three steps of a root canal?
The steps performed during a root canal are extirpation, instrumentation, and obturation.
Conclusion
Most of us get scared when we hear about root canal treatment and start questioning, like, do I need a root canal? What are the alternative options for a root canal, and why do I have to go through this?
For patients who are scared of root canal treatment and don’t want to go for it, this article is a guide as it will give you the reason to go for a root canal and will also tell the worth of root canal treatment. Make sure to visit your endodontist on time if you want to save your oral structures.