Root Canal in El Paso, Texas
Root canal is needed sometimes to clean out pain and infections in and around a tooth. The aim of the procedure is to get the patient comfortable and save a tooth.
What is a root canal?
Root canal is the space that is inside the roots of a tooth. A root canal treatment cleans out everything inside this space. For a more detailed explanation please Read American Association of Endodontics Root Canal Explained.
How Is a Root Canal Done?
Step 1: Anesthetizing (Numbing)
Patient is numbed really well with medicine and local anesthesia.
Stage 2: Access
Decay are removed and the dentist open up the canals for disinfection by opening up a small hole on the tooth
Stage 3: Clean & Shape
The root canal is cleaned from top down all the way thru to the end of the tooth. During this stage bacteria and debris are removed.
Stage 4: Obturation
The tooth is filled back up with sealers that have both bacteriostatic and sealing properties to help prevent reinfection. The sealers are often pushed into place with gutta purcha.
When do you need a root canal?
1. Deep Decays
When the decay on your tooth is too big it’ll affect the nerve, causing it to become inflamed which leads to pain and infection.
2. Infection/Abscess
If the infection inside a tooth blows out into the bone and soft tissue, that’s when an abscess forms. An abscess usually looks like an bubble and can be extremely painful.
3. Cracked tooth
Sometimes a tooth cracks all the way thru into the nerve, when that happens the nerve must be cleaned out otherwise infection is likely in the future.
4. Large/Repeated dental procedures
Sometimes there’s only so much you can do to a tooth (such as fillings, crowns, etc.) before the nerve gets inflamed, thus requiring root canal to remove the infected tissues.
Frequently Asked Questions
If you have any questions regarding Root Canal, please feel free to contact us.
You will be numbed very well before the procedure is even started. If profound numbess cannot be achieved with the anesthesia, the dentist may choose to reschedule for another day and have you take antibiotic first. During the root canal, you should be pain free, sometimes with some temporary zing, but no more than that.
Root canal treatment difficulty depends on a lot of factors such the number of roots, how curved the roots are, the direction of the tooth. On average, root canal of a front tooth takes about 1 hour, and back tooth may take up to 2 hours.
Depending on what the condition of the tooth and bone is surrounding the tooth, root canal can be completely painless immediately after completion. However, there are times where medicines such as Ibuprofen and antibiotics must be given to help manage sensitivity after. It’s possible after a difficult root canal it takes a few weeks up to a few month for the tooth to start feeling normal completely, but that would be a more rare case.
