Root Canal Treatment Steps of 2021
Needing to undergo an emergency root canal treatment is one thing nobody wants to hear. A root canal infection can be so painful and terrible an experience but does the treatment have to be a root canal treatment? Are there no alternatives?
The root canal is the natural space at the center of the tooth wherein lies the tooth nerve, blood vessels, and dental pulp.
The root canal treatment is performed by a root canal dentist to repair and save a badly infected or damaged tooth. The dentist removes infected materials, cleanses the root canal and seals it. This prevents the re-entry of micro-organisms to cause infection or tooth abscesses.
What Can Cause You To Need A Root Canal Treatment Steps?
When you have any of the following –
- Dental caries
- Severely damaged tooth
- Severely infected dental pulp
- A chipped or cracked tooth
- Deep decay of the root canal
- A broken tooth that exposes the dental pulp
Why Is There A Need For Alternative To Root Canal?
Want to know one of the most popular alternative to root canal treatment. Because of the shape of the root canal, it is practically impossible to clean out all the bacteria and then seal it. This makes this method of treating a root canal infection ineffective for restorative purposes.
The typical root canal treatment sometimes gives an avenue for micro-organisms to thrive, which could cause further infection with time.
Also, filling the canal could cause an inadequate supply of healthy and nutrient-rich blood which in turn prevents the immune system form fighting and doing away with the bacteria that remained after the root canal treatment.
Interestingly, these microbes could become toxic when they get into circulation, predisposing you to conditions such as heart disease or arthritis just to mention a few.
In other cases, the microbes combine with chemicals or heavy metals from dental works to form neurotoxins. Hence the need for alternatives to root canal treatment.
How Does Emergency Dentistry Work?
When you are faced with a broken tooth with accompanying enormous pain, or a knocked-out tooth, a bleeding or displaced tooth which is still in the gums. All these calls for seeing your emergency dentist immediately.
Now because your dental clinic knows that you can be faced with any of these emergencies at any time, most dentists make adequate plans for such situations.
All you need to do is to call your dentist who will immediately make arrangements to see you. But in a case where you have a dental emergency at night, you could go to the emergency room where you will be given emergency dental care.
How Is A Root Canal Performed?
To confirm that you need a root canal treatment, your root canal dentist may order for an x-ray and a pulp vitality test. If the results show that you need one, your endodontist will then determine if you need one or more sittings to complete yours.
The root canal treatment is performed with the aid of a microscope that is attached to your mouth which serves to magnify the structures of the mouth for your endodontist.
Next, an anesthetic such as lidocaine is used to numb the tooth and prevent you from feeling pain during the root canal procedure as you don’t need to be put to sleep. Your endodontist then places a rubber dam over the tooth which consists of a metal clamp that helps keep a latex sheet in place over the tooth. All these keep the tooth clean and free from contaminants and saliva.
Removal Of The Pulp
The endodontist then removes the decay and makes an opening to access the dental pulp chamber and with the use of small dental instruments, the badly infected or damaged pulp is then removed.
After clearing, the canal, your dentists then flushes and cleans the root canal and then reshapes or enlarges it for proper filling.
Sometimes, medications are put in the chamber to clear any remaining infection or left open to drain for days. Antibiotics may be prescribed and when you need multiple appointments to complete the procedure, a root canal temporary filling is used to cover the tooth and keep out saliva or debris.
On your part, avoid chewing or biting with the tooth it till it has been treated and restored.
To round up the procedure, your dentist restores your tooth by placing a dental crown over the tooth to protect it from future damage and to help it function normally.
Can A Root Canal Be Done In One Sitting?
A root canal procedure can be done in one sitting though this depends on the complexity of the case and cases that may require more than one sittings are-
- Complications from a previous root canal procedure
- Severely infected tooth
- A tooth with multiple roots
- A tooth with very small canals.
It has been reported that performing a root canal treatment in a single or multiple sitting has an almost equal success rate. Provided the pulp is only superficially infected and the procedure was performed under aseptic conditions, one visit may suffice.
However, when the dental pulp is severely infected, decayed and or linked to Periradicular disease, one sitting may not be enough.
Whether you need one sitting or more for your root canal treatment, you must know that it depends on the circumstances that surround your case and you should allow your root canal dentist to determine that as the professional in this case.
Is It Possible To Restore A Broken Teeth?
Having a fall, biting something hard or trauma to the face could cause you a broken tooth especially when it has started decaying.
When faced with a broken tooth, it will do you good if you see your dentist without further delay as there are a lot of things that can be done to restore your tooth.
While you do that, you can take over the counter pain medication if there is a pain, use sugarless chewing gum to cover the broken tooth if it has a sharp or jagged edge to prevent injuring your tongue.
The kind of restorative treatment you get depends on the severity of the damage, the more the damage, the more the number of dentist appointments and the cost of fixing it. Your endodontist will determine if you need a dental crown or cap, root canal treatment, dental bonding or filling or dental veneers.
If you are looking for a trusted dental clinic that offers alternative treatments to root canal infection in Houston, visit us at the Urbn dental clinic to book an appointment with our highly qualified root canal dentists.