When the nerve of a tooth becomes infected, a successful root canal treatment lets you keep the tooth rather than having to pull it out. Keeping your tooth helps to prevent your other teeth from drifting out of line and causing jaw problems. Saving natural teeth helps avoid having to replace it with an artificial tooth.

The dentists at Lormel Gate Dentistry in Brampton offer root canal treatment. Root canal treatment, also known as endodontic treatment. Visit our Brampton, Bolton and Caledon offices today.

What is a root canal treatment?

Root canal treatment is also known as endodontic treatment; it's the process of removing infected, injured or dead pulp from your tooth. The space inside the hard layers of each tooth is called the root canal system. The system is filled with soft dental pulp made up of nerves and blood vessels that help your teeth grow and develop.

When bacteria (germs) enter a tooth through deep cavities, cracks or flawed fillings, a tooth can become abscessed. An abscessed tooth is a tooth with an infection in the pulp. If pulp becomes infected, it needs to be removed. An abscessed tooth might cause pain and or swelling. The dentist might notice the infection from a dental x-ray or from other changes with the tooth. If it is not treated, the abscessed tooth can cause serious oral health issues.

Who performs a Root Canal Treatment?

A dentist might do root canal treatment or refer you to an endodontist. Endodontists are dentists who have completed a university post-graduate specialty program in endodontics. Endodontics is a specialty of dentistry concerned with the treatment of the dental pulp or nerve of the tooth. If a child's primary (baby) tooth is damaged, the dentist might refer you to a pediatric dentist for this procedure. A pediatric dentist has at least 2 years of extra university training in treating children.

The steps of a Root Canal Treatment

• The dentist gives you a local anesthetic (freezing).
• To protect your tooth from bacteria in your saliva during the treatment, the dentist places a rubber dam around the tooth being treated.
• The dentist makes an opening in the tooth to reach the root canal system and the damaged pulp.
• Using very fine dental instruments, the dentist removes the pulp by cleaning and enlarging the root canal system.
• After the canal has been cleaned, the dentist fills and seals the canal.
• The opening of the tooth is then sealed with either a temporary or permanent filling.

Tooth Restoration After a Root Canal Treatment

After a root canal treatment, your requires restoring (fixing) to look, feel and work as much as natural tooth as possible. If an endodontist performed your root canal treatment, he or she will fill the opening of tooth with a temporary filling and send you back to your dentist or prosthodontist for tooth restoration.

A prosthodontist is a dental specialist who replaces and restores teeth using crowns, bridges, dentures and implants. Your dentist or specialist might use a permanent filling or a crown to restore your tooth. It often depends on the strength of the part of the tooth that's left to restore the tooth. A back tooth will likely need a crown because chewing puts a great deal of force on back teeth. If there is not enough of the tooth left, posts may be used to help support the crown.

Other Things to Note:

A root canal treatment can be done in 1 to 2 appointments. After a root canal treatment, your tooth might be tender for a week or two. Pain and swelling are not common, if this happens, call your dentist or endodontist.

You could still get cavities or suffer from gum disease after a root canal treatment. Root canal treatments do not protect your tooth from other types of damages. With proper care and regular dental visits, the tooth could last as long as your other teeth. Most of the time, a tooth that has had a root canal treatment can be saved.

Root Canal Retreatment

Often root canal treatments are successful. Sometimes though, a second root canal treatment is required. This is called retreatment. When retreating a tooth, the root canal filling material is taken out and the canal is cleaned again, reshaped and refilled.

Sometimes root canal surgery is needed when a regular root canal treatment cannot be done or when it has not worked. Surgery is done to check the end of the root for fractures or cracks, remove parts of the root that could not be cleaned during regular root canal treatment or clear up an infection that did not health after regular treatment.