Root Canal Treatment

Are you suffering from a cracked tooth and need immediate pain relief? Lygon Family Dental will provide you prompt and professional dental assistance.

Root Canal Treatment involves the saving of a tooth that is decayed and otherwise would die and have to be removed. In order to save the tooth, the pulp (the living tissue inside the tooth), nerves, bacteria, and any decay are removed and the resulting space is filled with special, medicated, dental materials, which restore the tooth to its full function.

Root canal therapy is needed when the nerve of a tooth is affected by decay or infection. Many patients believe that removing a tooth that has problems is the solution, but what is not realized is that extracting (pulling) a tooth will ultimately be more costly and cause significant problems for adjacent teeth.

Root canal treatment if followed by placement of a crown is highly successful and usually lasts a lifetime, although on occasion, a tooth will have to be retreated due to new infections.

Signs and symptoms for possible root canal therapy:

• An abscess (or pimple) on the gums
• Sensitivity to hot and cold
• Severe toothache pain
• Sometimes no symptoms are present
• Swelling and/or tenderness

Reasons for root canal therapy:

• Decay has reached the tooth pulp (the living tissue inside the tooth)
• Infection or abscess has developed inside the tooth or at the root tip
• Injury or trauma to the tooth such as a crack in the tooth

A root canal procedure requires one or more appointments and can be performed by a dentist or endodontist (a root canal specialist). While the tooth is numb, an access opening is made on top of the tooth and a series of root canal files are placed into the opening, one at a time, removing the pulp, nerve tissue, and bacteria If tooth decay is present, it will also be removed with special dental instruments the pulp chamber is cleaned and disinfected and allowed to heal.

Once the tooth is thoroughly cleaned, it will be sealed with either a permanent filling or, if additional appointments are needed, a temporary filling will be placed.

At the next appointment, usually a week later, the roots and the inside cavity of the tooth will be filled and sealed with special dental materials. A filling will be placed to cover the opening on top of the tooth. In addition, all teeth that have root canal treatment should have a crown (cap) placed. This will protect the tooth and prevent it from breaking, and restore it to its full function.

After the initial root canal appointment, there may be some discomfort for one or two days but this will quickly improve. You will be given care instructions after each appointment. Good oral hygiene practices and regular dental visits will aid in the life of your root canal treatment.

If you’ve ever undergone a root canal to save an infected tooth, your dentist probably didn’t mention the type of tools he was using to perform the procedure. You may not think it matters as long as the treatment is effective; however, if your root canal was performed using the traditional manual method, you may have noticed that it was a bit nerve-racking. Here at Lygon Family Dental, we use rotary endodontic technology to make the experience smoother and more comfortable for our patients.

Rotary endodontics employs electrically-powered instruments to perform the root canal treatment rather than traditional stainless-steel manual files. The electric hand tool is equipped with a tip constructed out of nickel titanium a material that is five times more flexible than stainless steel.

Due to the flexibility and unique movement of the nickel-titanium instrument, it can be inserted deeply into a curved root canal without stretching or damaging the passageway. This makes for a quick and reliable procedure.

Our Dentists prefer using rotary endodontic methods over manual root canal treatments for several reasons:

• The nickel titanium cleans out the root canal much more smoothly and consistently
• Rotary endodontic procedures are more reliable with less chance of complications
• Rotary tools make the root canal procedure much faster
• The electric tools are much quieter and smoother, without the loud grinding that accompanies manual files
• The fast treatment time, in conjunction with quieter instruments, make for a much more comfortable and less frightening experience for patients

Although using a manual file will still clean out the root canals thoroughly, most dentists and patients prefer rotary endodontics. In fact, it was largely the loud grinding of manual files that gave root canal therapy the reputation of being a “scary” or “undesirable” procedure. With rotary endodontics, patients feel much more comfortable during the treatment and barely notice the whirring of the tools.

Are you looking out for a Brunswick Dental clinic? Visit Lygon Family Dental where we will provide you quality and comprehensive dental services for your entire family. In addition, Lygon Family Dental is your 24/7* Emergency Dentist.

*subject to dentist’s availability.