Dental canal treatment, professionally called endodontic treatment by dentists, causes many negative emotions. This is usually associated with pain and long and unpleasant visits to the dental office. Lack of understanding of the need and course of root canal treatment often leads to the patient refusing it, which in the future leads to tooth loss.
The tooth is made of a crown and root. The coronal part is outside covered with a very hard and mechanically resistant enamel layer, which makes the teeth shine. Under the enamel is dentin – less durable and more sensitive to external stimuli. The root of the tooth is also made of dentin, which in this case covers the root of the cement. Inside the tooth, surrounded by dentine, is the cavity of the tooth and the root canal, filled with living tissue of the pulp, which is richly vascularized and innervated.
Inflammation of the pulp of the tooth
Endodontic treatment should be used for inflammation of the pulp of the tooth. This is manifested by spontaneous toothache, a strong sensitivity to temperature changes and bites. Pain often also occurs at night, and the symptoms that occur require the use of analgesics.
What to do?
If you experience these symptoms, please consult your dentist as soon as possible. Based on interviews with the patient, radiographs and simple and minimally invasive tests in the doctor’s office, the doctor determines whether endodontic treatment should be used. During the first visit, the procedure is performed under local anesthesia and consists in opening a tooth. If possible, the dentist removes all the pulp from the tooth and the root chamber, expands and disinfects the root canal and immediately fills it with a special material. Usually, however, the inflammation present in the pulp is too strong to carry out all the treatments in one visit. Then drugs of the devitalizing pulp are used, which are usually called tooth poisoning.
What is root canal treatment?
During subsequent visits, the canal expands and is disinfected and topical antibiotics, steroids, and antiseptics are used. These procedures should be carried out until all symptoms of inflammation have disappeared, both those experienced by the patient and those seen by the doctor in the form of inflammatory exudate in the root canal.
If the patient does not inform the dentist about the appearance of the first symptoms, after a while the pain will disappear. This will start the staining process of the tooth pulp and the development of gangrene pulp. It can also occur as a complication of dental trauma or idiopathic, that is, for no apparent reason. Dead tooth does not cause discomfort for some time. In the case of a decrease in body resistance, an increase in ambient temperature or a significant development of the gangrenous process, very severe pain appears. In addition, there may be purulent exudate, swelling, fever and general malaise. Then it is necessary to use the antibiotic orally, and endodontic treatment takes more time and requires more visits.
Only chance
In case of inflammation or death of dental pulp, root canal treatment is the only way to keep the tooth in the mouth. Otherwise, only tooth extraction remains.
Picture Credit: jarmoluk
