With today's modern dental techniques having a " root canal " done by a dentist is no longer a scary experience. One of the dentists at the Atlanta Dental Group, Dr. Smith, is experienced in performing root canals. He uses several high tech pieces of "root canal" equipment to treat his patients including a sophisticated sonar-like instrument that finds the exact end of a root canal.
The Atlanta Dental Group also owns several high torque dental hand pieces that can be used with titanium root canal files to mechanically and rapidly open a root canal. This can significantly decease the time necessary to do a root canal.
Extensive decay, an accident, fracture, or gum disease can kill teeth. However, your teeth can be saved using modern "root canal" therapy, also called endodontics. The prefix " endo- " means " inside " and the word ending "-dontics" means " teeth", so endodontics has to do with treating the "inside of teeth".
The inside of a tooth is like the inside of a candy tootsie pop. Inside every tooth's crown there is a hollow area that extends into each of the tooth roots. The hollow area in the root is called a "canal". Each "root canal" is cleaned out, widened, and filled during "root canal" therapy. It is fortunate for us that once a tooth is formed the contents of the root's canal are not necessary.
At first the dentist deeply numbs the tooth and next creates an entry hole through the top of the crown. The content of the hollow area in the crown and in the " root canal " is removed using specially designed " root canal " files which also widen and flare the " root canal ". Finally, the canal inside the root is filled with a rubber material called gutta percha.
Root canal therapy can be unpredictable. There are times even after appropriate initial treatment that a tooth doesn't settle down. Stronger antibiotics and possibly, anti-inflammatory medications may then be necessary. At the Atlanta Dental Group we prefer to enter a tooth after a patient has been on antibiotics for 3 to 7 days, however, this can not always be done. Swelling from an infected tooth can also complicate " root canal " therapy. Pus around the infected root increases the acid concentration and it may not be able to be numbed well. Again, stronger antibiotics and perhaps, incising and draining the area can help.
About one in twenty root canals requires additional treatment six months after the root canal has been completed. In these cases the tip of one or more roots remains infected even though the " root canal " treatment appears adequate.
A tooth becomes very brittle after " root canal " therapy and requires restoration with a core build-up and a crown, otherwise the tooth can split. If the split is bad a patient can possibly lose the tooth. This is a lot of dental care for one tooth, so it is much better to avoid needing a " root canal " by visiting the dentist regularly and picking up problems before they become large.
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