Root Canal Therapy
Root Canal in Rigby ID
You’ve no-doubt heard plenty of horror stories about root canals, or endodontic treatment in general. A lot of people still have the idea that this has to be an awful dental care experience.
This is an outdated notion about root canal therapy, however, as it’s rooted in a lot of sub par or technologically challenged methods of the past.
At our Rigby Idaho dental clinic, root canal therapy / endodontic treatment is just another one of our routine dental services that our dentists provide all the time. With anesthesia, conscious sedation, local anesthetic, and plenty of care, this is a safe and clean procedure that will be over before you know it. Our patients are often surprised at how easy the procedure can be.
When Do You Need A Root Canal?
Root canals are typically required when a tooth has a deep fracture or has decayed to the point that the inner-tissue of the tooth has become infected.
The soft, pulpy tissue at the center of your tooth—appropriately called the “tooth pulp”—contains various blood vessels and the tooth nerves.
When this tissue, nerve, and blood vessels are infected or damaged, the pain can be overwhelming.
The good news is that root canals at our Rigby dental clinic will ultimately eliminate your pain and restore your tooth to its natural form and function.
As the above image illustrates, the first step is to go into the tooth using a special dental instrument similar to a long crowbar. This allows the dentist to clear out any diseased pulp left in the tooth.
A rubber sheet may then be placed into your mouth so that it surrounds your lower jawbone and cheeks without covering your lips or chin.
Next, the dentist may use a combination of air abrasion and water to remove any remaining soft tissue from within the canal. This creates an even surface for optimal filling of tissue later on. Air abrasion generally only takes about five minutes to perform.
After this process has been completed, the dentist will fill the tooth with medicine that prevents harmful bacteria from entering the tooth and spreading throughout your body through your bloodstream (something that can cause significant health issues).
Finally, the now open (and empty) tooth is covered with a dental crown, which allows it to function like a natural tooth.
How Are Root Canals Performed?
Root canals are performed in order to save teeth that have become infected or badly decayed, thus preventing the need for dental extraction. There are three basic steps involved in completing this procedure: cleaning out the pulp of the tooth, shaping the inside surfaces of the root canal, and filling it with medication-infused material.
The first step is to cleanse the area used for your root canal treatment and numbing it with local anesthetics . These may be either injected into the surrounding tissue or applied topically in liquid form.
Next, we use a dental instrument to clean out your tooth root of all of the infected tooth pulp. This stops the infection, keeping it from spreading into the root tip, but it also does something equally important: stopping your pain!
What a massive relief it will be to not have that stinging, electric pain in your tooth, jaw, and head anymore.
The next step is usually to fill the canal with medication containing an antiseptic (e.g., antibiotics), analgesics (painkillers), or both. If any decay was left behind during the initial procedure, further procedures will be required before your final restoration—the dental crown—is placed on your tooth.
After that’s done, we place a porcelain crown on the tooth to preserve its strength, as having a tooth that’s empty of pulp can lead to a weakening of the tooth structure over time.
Signs That You Need A Root Canal
If you are experiencing any of the following symptoms, it’s probably time to schedule an appointment at our Rigby dental clinic.
- Intense tooth pain when chewing or applying pressure to a tooth;
- Prolonged pain after a tooth is exposed to hot or cold temperatures;
- Tooth discoloration, usually dark and/or grey;
- Tenderness or swelling in the gums near the tooth;
- A pimple-like protrusion at the gumline near the tooth.
Are Root Canals Painful?
Thanks to modern dental technology, local anesthetic, and conscious sedation (sedation dentistry), root canal treatment is now virtually painless for most patients.
As with all dental procedures, there may be some discomfort as natural teeth are always susceptible to pain, but the days of sitting through a painful dental procedure for hours on end are long over.
Cedar Creek Dental also provides various relaxing amenities to help you feel calm and comfortable during your dental procedure. Our staff is understanding of the anxiety that many people feel at the prospect of even simple dental procedures, and that a root canal can seem like a harrowing experience.
This isn’t the case. When you come into Cedar Creek Dental, expect to be treated with the utmost courtesy and respect. We will guide you through every step of your root canal in a gentle and caring fashion, ensuring that you feel safe and secure in our hands.
Cedar Creek Dental in Rigby ID 83442 is equipped to handle all your dental needs from general dentistry care (such as checkups and teeth cleaning) to more extensive procedures like root canals or implants. When you come into Cedar Creek Dental for yourself or a loved one, we want to get to know you personally so that we can make sure everybody under our roof gets nothing but the highest quality dental care and a healthy smile.
What Happens If You Put Off Getting A Root Canal?
In short: it’s not going to be pleasant.
Tooth decay makes its way into deeper and deeper layers of the tooth until it eventually reaches the tooth pulp, at which point the pulp becomes infected and inflamed. However, because the tooth pulp is surrounded by solid tooth structure, all of that pressure gets forced down on the tooth nerve.
This is 1) very painful, and 2) cuts off blood supply to the tooth nerve, eventually causing its death.
Eventually, an inflamed pocket of pus—usually referred to as a dental abscess—appears at the gumline. This happens when the infection has spread deep into the tooth root and made its way into the gumline.
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If you have any reservations regarding dental care treatment and have been putting off scheduling an appointment for some much-needed work, Dr. Mikesell is an expert in the industry and will take care of most of your Dental needs.