Root canal: The best solution for your disintegrating and painful tooth
Got severe tooth pain? Have you been advised to undergo a root canal treatment by your dentist? Got lots of questions about it? Keep reading to know more about it.
Root canal treatment is a dental procedure done to repair and save a damaged or infected tooth. The treatment involves the removal of the damaged part of the tooth along with the infected nerves and replacing them with a special material to prevent the further spread of infection or damage.
What are the indications of a Root Canal Treatment>
- Extensive Decay / Cavity.
- Trauma to the tooth.
- Pus formation
- Severe wear and tear of tooth (attrition or abrasion)
- Fractured tooth (could be due to trauma or extensive decay)
- Prolonged dental sensitivity that could not be controlled with anti-sensitivity toothpaste
- Teeth with severe gum diseases may also require root canal even if its not decayed.
What exactly is a Root Canal Treatment?
So basically, a tooth is made up of three layers. When the cavity is limited to the outer 2 layers; called enamel and dentin; a simple filling is enough to treat the tooth. But if left untreated, it progresses into the third layer i.e., pulp. The pulp contains nerves and blood vessels which are responsible for pain and sensitivity. Therefore, in this condition, when the cavity has reached the pulp, a simple filling will not solve the problem. Root canal treatment is required to not only remove damaged tooth structure but also to remove these infected pulp tissue. Steps involved in root canal treatment:
- Local Anaesthesia administration: The area of the tooth that needs RCT is numbed so that no pain is felt during the treatment
- Access cavity preparation: This is the first step of RCT and it involves the removal of carious/infected tooth portion and creating access to reach the pulp tissue.
- Cleaning, disinfection, and shaping: 2nd step involves cleaning the infected pulp tissue and shaping the tooth structure to receive a suitable filling.
- Obturation: The final step of RCT involves filling and sealing the cleaned and shaped root canal space with a biocompatible filling material.
- Permanent filling: Once the root canal space is filled, a permanent filling is done in the access cavity and is prepared to receive the crown.
- Crown Placement: After every root canal treatment, a crown is mandatory to give the tooth additional strength and avoid re-infection of the tooth.
Frequently Asked Questions About Root Canal Treatment:
- Is Root Canal treatment painful?
- How long do Root Canal Treatment Lasts?
- Is cap necessary after Root Canal Treatment?
- Is Root Canal treatment required for milk teeth?
- What is the cost of Root Canal Treatment in Mumbai>
Root Canal Procedures are generally done under anesthesia so usually there is no pain during the procedure. Post treatment, there might be a little discomfort for 2-3 days but it can easily be managed by over the counter painkillers.
Root canals have a success rate of over 95% and in most cases they last a lifetime. But there are several factors that decides the life of a root canal:
- Getting it permanently filled and capped immediately after the root canal procedure reduces the chances of reinfection.
- Maintaining good oral hygiene which includes brushing and flossing regularly around the cap.
- Visiting the dentist every 6 monthly for a check up and cleaning.
Yes! Cap is necessary after Root canal Treatment.
Reason: Root Canal Treatment involves removing nerves and blood vessels of teeth along with the infection. (Really its not as scary as it sounds :D) But this makes the tooth brittle and more prone to fracture as compared to natural teeth. So, putting a cap ensures that the strength of the tooth is reinforced and also prevents re-infection from seeping in.
Root canal for milk teeth is done when the cavity is very deep and cannot be restored by a normal filling. Performing a root canal on milk teeth relieves pain, helps in chewing food properly, thereby maintaining good nutrition of the child and retains it till the time it is ready to fall.
It also removes infection and ensures that developing permanent tooth stays healthy.
Removing milk tooth can impact the speech of the child
Also Milk tooth acts as a guide for eruption of permanent tooth and prevents malalignment.
Cost of Root Canal Treatment varies between 4300 rs to 7000rs
Painless Root Canal Treatment at Rathi Dental Care, Vrindavan Society, Thane
To provide you with best root canal treatment in thane, we focus on super advanced single-sitting painless root canal treatments. Almost all the root canals are performed in one sitting.
- Average treatment duration : 1 hour.
- Multiple root canal treatments can be done in a single sitting with the help of advance root canal instruments such as endomotor.
- For quick and accurate diagnosis, we use digital X-rays.
- The root canals need to be cleaned and filled to the very apex of the root. We use the technology of Apex Locators to determine the exact length of the root thereby ensuring precision.
- Once the exact length of the root is known, the canals are cleaned and shaped with Endomotors which is a rotary device instead of hand instrumentation. This allows us to reduce the treatment time duration without affecting the efficacy of the treatment.
- We use the best quality root canal irrigants for thorough disinfection and filling materials.
- We use the help of the best labs using state-of-the-art technology for crown fabrication. We also have the facility for digital scanners instead of physical impressions if you have gag reflex. Later the crowns are digitally designed and milled using CAD-CAM technology in 30 year old lab. Digitally designed and prepared crowns gives better fit and durability of crown