A Step by Step Guide to Root Canal Treatment

In the earlier days when the patients have tooth ache, they visit dentist for its examination. However with the advancement in dentistry a more predictable and painless treatment has come, known as Root Canal Treatment. Therefore various reasons for toothache like trauma to tooth, dental caries, tooth fracture, periodontitis etc. Amongst these reasons for tooth ache, dental caries is the most common for toothache.

In the initial stages of dental caries when it is not involving pulp i.e. dental caries is restricted to enamel and dentine, removing caries and filling with composite, amalgam or Glc will solve the problem. However when the dental caries reaches or involve dental pulp then mere just filling with restorative material will not solve the problem and then more elaborative treatment is required that is Root Canal Treatment.

In this treatment dentist under local anesthesia [L.A] perform through shaping and cleaning of canals with hand/rotary needles and then fill the canal with medicated pastes to remove the infection from root canal.

Once the tooth is totally free from infection, then the root canals are filled with Gutta-percha & sealer. After filling the root canals tooth is restored with permanent filling material i.e. composite or Amalgam. However, in some of the cases when the tooth is grossly destructed i.e. major part of tooth is missing then mere filling is not sufficient and the additional procedure of Post and Core is required to build tooth structure.

After filling restorative material in the tooth it is advisable to put crown to prevent fracture of tooth. For crown there are various options for the patients like All-metal, Metal-ceramic, E-Max & Zirconia. Now a day's tooth colour crown are more popular I.e. Emax & Zirconia.

It has been seen that many of patients instead of going for Root Canal Treatment opt for medicines I.e. Antibiotics and pain killer for weeks together to reduce/relieve pain. This kind of practice to reduce pain is not good for important parts of body i.e. Kidney and liver.

It has been seen threat some of the time if infection in the root canal do not go away in spite of best medicated filling & treatment the apicoectomy i.e. Apical surgery, a procedure where root tips is removed and a filling placed is done. Like any other procedures in root canal treatment also some of the procedural errors may happen i.e. perforation, fracture of instruments, ledge formation, over and under instrumentation. However a good operators  can handle these errors in a proper way.

This treatment can be done by the general dentist, however in difficult cases an Endodontists specialist in root canal treatment  are better capable of handling difficulty situation. After Root Canal Treatment tooth function like other healthy tooth in the mouth for lifetime. The patient can enjoy drinking hot & cold, chew hard & soft food with that tooth. It is important to remember that dental caries can happen even root canal treated tooth, so good oral hygiene and regular dental checkups are necessary to prevent any future problems to happen.

In the follow up examination take an X-ray and compare it with previous X-ray those taken prior & during treatment. By comparing dentist concludes that bone underneath the tooth is regenerating or getting further loss.

So, next time please visit your dentist for regular check-up and get Root Canal Treatment done if it is required instead for extraction.

Read our one more blog which is related to Oral Surgery Courses at Ahead Academy