Your Guide to Understanding the Root Canal Procedure: What to Expect? | Blog
Your Guide to Understanding the Root Canal Procedure: What to Expect?

Your Guide to Understanding the Root Canal Procedure: What to Expect?

July 1, 2023

Root canals are a treatment helpful to improve and save severely decayed or infected teeth. The therapy also helps preserve chipped or broken teeth by removing damaged tissue within the tooth before cleaning and sealing it. Endodontists are professionals who receive training in performing root canals but are also performed by dentists. However, endodontists are professionals with specialized training to treat infections of the dental pulp and nerves within the tooth.

The Step-By-Step Process of a Root Canal: What to Expect

You can expect to receive a recommendation to undergo a root canal when you report excruciating pain in a specific tooth, temperature sensitivity, dental abscess, and pus oozing in your mouth, leaving an awful taste in the mouth. Before recommending root canal therapy in Northwest Calgary, the specialist x-rays your tooth to assess the severity of the damage before making a suggestion.

Although root canals have a fearsome reputation, you can expect the specialist to provide you with different anesthesia options like intravenous and oral conscious sedation besides local anesthesia to ensure you don’t experience discomfort during the therapy.

When you are seated in the dentist’s chair and have received local anesthesia near the affected tooth, the dentist starts drilling the tooth after it is entirely numb to expose the infected or inflamed dental pulp. Using sophisticated, flexible instruments, the dental clinic NW Calgary will remove the dental pulp and the infected nerves from within the tooth before cleaning and disinfecting it and sealing it with a biocompatible rubberlike material, gutta-percha. The access hole drilled in the crown of your tooth receives a temporary filling for protection during your healing.

Root canals help eliminate the pain you experience from the infected tooth and do not cause discomfort when providing the treatment. In addition, the anesthesia you receive remains with you until six hours after the procedure, allowing you to return home to rest without pain from the infection.

After Care for Root Canal Treatment: How to Ensure Successful Recovery?

After returning home from the dental clinic following the root canal, the dentist provides after-care instructions you must observe to guarantee a successful recovery. For example, the dentist recommends not to work or exert yourself by exercising or lifting heavy objects because it can cause a rush of blood in your head to increase bleeding in your mouth. In addition, dentists recommend not smoking, consuming alcohol or using over-the-counter mouthwash containing alcohol because it interacts with the painkillers you receive for comfort and delays recovery.

You will experience discomfort after the anesthesia wears off but can comfortably manage it by taking the recommended painkillers according to dosage. While you cannot use mouthwash brands, you can use saltwater rinses for rinsing your mouth several times daily after eating to ensure you eliminate any food particles remaining in the mouth to prevent infections. The pain from the root canal subsides in 72 hours, and you must visit the NW Calgary dental clinic to assess your progress about a week after your therapy when they suggest rejuvenating the tooth with a dental crown.

You can receive restorative Dentistry Calgary from the NW Calgary dental clinic after you recover from your procedure when they place a restoration over your treated tooth to strengthen it from fractures or breakage to help you use the tooth for many years.

Debunking the Myths of Root Canals: Separating Fact from Fiction

When you hear about a root canal, you will likely hear many myths spread about them, even though you hear information that it will cause cancer; the treatment is excruciatingly painful and is best avoided even at the cost of getting your tooth extracted. Unfortunately, these are plain myths spread by people who fear the treatment because they did not deal with specialists providing these treatments.

The reality of root canals is entirely different. The truth is:

  • You can become a victim of several health problems, including cancer, if you allow the bacteria from the infection to spread your body through your bloodstream, which it does when you develop a dental abscess.
  • Root canals help eliminate the pain you experience from the infection without causing excruciating pain when receiving the treatment. The anesthesia and sedation options offered by the dentist make you oblivious to the treatment and think it is no more painful than getting a tooth filled.
  • Replacing the missing tooth costs much more than receiving a root canal, besides requiring multiple appointments with dentists and periodontists before receiving an artificial tooth.

If you deal with specialists to receive a root canal, they help you overcome all problems by providing comfortable and painless treatment to eliminate the infection inside out and preserve it for use for many years.

If having a painful tooth and receive a recommendation for a root canal from Carrington Dental, kindly receive the treatment without hesitation. The therapy ensures you eradicate the infection inside your tooth without pain and return home happy that the treatment is no more painful than getting a dental filling.