Root canal treatment guide

Endodontic, or root canal treatment, is a complex and demanding area of dentistry. It is better for you to be treated by someone with a special interest in root canal work, with the experience and specialist equipment necessary to provide the best possible standard of care for you.

Here at Raynesway Dental Practice, we are fortunate to have a dentist with a special interest in endodontics and his expertise is relied on by other dentists in the region who refer their patients to him for treatment. Root canal treatment is required when the pulp inside the root or roots of your teeth becomes infected. This can happen as a result of accidental damage or decay.

If the infection is not removed, it can spread throughout the root canal system of the tooth and can cause an abscess. This can be extremely painful and can lead to damage in the bone around the tooth. Without treatment, the tooth is likely to have to be removed. Even if the abscess is painless, if left untreated, this may compromise any further treatment planned on the tooth, such as crowns.

Root canal treatment involves removing the infected pulp and filling the root canals. The root canals are extremely small, and are rarely straight, which is why it is often better to be treated by someone with the necessary finely-tuned skills and specialist equipment.

The treatment may take two or three visits to complete. First we make the tooth and its surrounding area numb so you won’t feel any pain. We remove all the infected pulp, and seal it with a special filling material which helps avoid potential problems in the future. Often the first filling is temporary, and we fill the canals permanently once the area that was infected has settled down.

Often the tooth is left weakened by decay, so we may recommend fitting a crown to strengthen it.

A course of root canal treatment can save the life of your tooth, enabling you to keep your natural teeth for years to come.