A root canal is a very common procedure done at a dental office. It is usually needed when there is decay in the tooth that has either reached the nerve or close to it. Additionally, it is needed when there is an infection around the roots of a tooth. Sometimes the patient is in pain and sometimes not. Patients often get surprised if a dentist informs them that they need a root canal. That’s usually the case when there is no pain. It’s important to understand that the infection or decay needs to be treated even if it’s not painful. If left untreated, the tooth can become non-restorable in which case, there is no other option but to extract the tooth.
Root Canal
What is it and when is it needed?
What Is A Root Canal And When Is It Needed
In this video, Dr. Lyuda explains what a root canal is and when is it necessary to be performed. It is important to understand that after a root canal the tooth may be brittle and compromised and prone to fracture. As a result, it is important to crown the tooth following a root canal procedure.
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What Is A Root Canal And When Is It Needed
Dr. Lyuda: Hi, my name is Dr. Lyuda, and I wanted to talk to you today about root canals. I’m often asked what they are, why they’re needed, how they’re performed, and whether they’re painful or not. A root canal is needed when you have a cavity that is really, really big, and it grows deep inside your tooth. It eventually invades where the nerve lives. Your nerve lives inside your roots. Once your nerve has been invaded by that bacteria, there is nothing we can do, but do a root canal. We cannot just place the filling in there, otherwise you are going to get an infection, as the nerve will eventually die.
The way we start a root canal, is we’re going to numb you with a local anesthesia. So you are fully aware, fully awake, but just that particular area around your tooth is going to be numb. Then it’s followed up with placing a rubber dam, which is a protective barrier to make sure that you don’t inhale or choke on any files or needles that we use to clean your tooth, and we also use a series of disinfecting agents that can be harmful to you if you swallow. So it’s all there to protect you, while isolating the tooth we work on.
Once we start, we clean out all the cavity. What a cavity is, is a soft tooth structure that’s been destroyed by a bacteria. So we clean all the soft tooth structure until we get into the nerve and find the locations, which are called orifices, which are the openings into the canals, where the nerve lives.
First we have to remove the nerve, and then we have to shape the canal to be a specific shape for a filling material to fit, while removing anything that’s been infected in there, in terms of the tooth structure, as well as disinfecting it with different solutions that we use.
After your tooth has been shaped, or the canal has been shaped and cleaned and disinfected, we are ready to place a final filling inside your canal and close it off.
Root Canal Simulation
In this simulation, you will see why a root canal may be needed on a tooth. It shows a deep cavity that is invading the root where the nerves live. Through this simulation, you will get a good understanding of the process of the root canal and what state the tooth is in following the root canal.
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Root Canal Simulation
Speaker 1: Let’s start by taking a look at the simulation. This is a perfect example of a tooth that has a really deep cavity. And so this black is a cavity, which is the soft tooth structure cause by bacteria producing acids and destroying your tooth structure causing it to become soft. Once that cavity reaches your nerves, which are located in your canals in the tooth in the roots of your teeth, your never will come inflamed, which gives you that sensation of pain. Sometimes it can go silent and sometimes you don’t get pain associated with it until your nerve actually dies and causes an infection.
So, let’s take a look. So, first we begin by cleaning the cavity, so the black spots on the tooth are gone. And now we’re going to enter a poke chamber and we use these files or needles to remove any vasculature and to remove any nerve tissue out the canal. And then we also use these same files to shape the canal that will fit perfectly with the size of the filling material that we’re going to use. Once everything is shaped, disinfected and cleaned and ready to be filled this orange stuff is called gutta percha and it’s used to seal now that hollow space inside your root and that opening where your vasculature nerves have been connected to.
Once, all of that is completed your root canal is done. And that’s part one for the whole procedure once your start a root canal as you do need to follow up with a build up and a crown.
Root Canal Plus Crown Testimonial
Robert our patient underwent a Root Canal procedure followed by crowning the tooth. Here he explains his experience at our office!
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Root Canal Plus Crown Testimonial
Hello. How are you doing? My name is Bob Janikowski and we were looking for a new dentist and we happen to run across the new dentist office that was here on Irving Park. We decided we would come in and find out with an evaluation of how everything was and everyone there was very professional and very nice, so everything worked out well. The doctor happened to notice on the x-rays when she took that I had an abscess in a tooth that I didn’t even realize was there, but she found it. She told me it’s going to cause me problems in the future unless I have a root canal and so I said well, okay, if that’s what you see and that’s what has to be done. She proceeded and she did it and it came out very well toward a color matching and everything.
Bob Janikowski
It’s on the front tooth. You can’t even tell the difference of which tooth it is. It’s fantastic the way it came out. She did a very, very good job all the way around. Like I said, everything in this office is very high tech and everyone is very personable. Thank you.
See what our patients say who've had a root canal