When a tooth is causing you pain, we will do everything in our power to save it, whether via a crown or other dental procedure. However, if the nerve of your tooth is infected, or if you are still experiencing pain after another dental treatment, you may need a root canal. While no one wants to get a root canal treatment, it is sometimes the only way to eliminate your infection and stop your pain. Learn more about our root canal treatment procedure below.

Our Salisbury Root Canal Treatment Process

If you have just learned that you will need a root canal, don’t panic. While we won’t lie and describe the experience as “comfortable”, it is not painful, and with over 15 million procedures performed each year, it is very routine for most dentists. Here is what you can expect from your root canal treatment:

• The tooth and surrounding tissue are anesthetized so the patient cannot feel pain or discomfort. (The anesthetic is commonly called “Novocaine”, but modern dentists actually use Procaine or something similar.
• A hole is drilled into the tooth. The dentist uses tiny instruments to extract the diseased tissue.
• Once the dentist is sure that the canal is disinfected, the interior of the tooth is filled with an inert material that helps prevent further infection.
• The patient is monitored for signs of complications, although these are extremely rare.

Why Do I Need Root Canal Therapy?

We understand that root canals can be scary. However, ignoring the problem will cause results that are much scarier! If your infection is allowed to progress unchecked, your tooth will continue to decay, causing you to experience a significant amount of pain. Ultimately, the tooth will become fractured or even fall out.

Worse still, the infection could spread to your jawbone, adjacent teeth, neck, or brain—the head is not a great place to have a bacterial infection! There are many famous people throughout history who have passed away due to tooth infections, including Jim Henson and Queen Elizabeth 1. That’s why we encourage all our patients to schedule an appointment as soon as they start experiencing pain.

If you have any more questions about root canal therapy, why you need it, or what it involves, be sure to give us a call, and one of our endodontic specialists will be happy to meet with you.