What is a root canal? When is it necessary?
A tooth has an inner soft chamber called the pulp chamber. It contains a nerve and a couple of tiny blood vessels. It is a sterile compartment. If bacteria are allowed to touch that chamber, for example by letting a cavity grow too large, that chamber becomes infected. Infected tissue swells. Therefore the swollen chamber can be very painful. Also, if a tooth becomes traumatized by getting bumped, it can kill the living tissue in the tooth, and it will also swell. In either case, the contents of the chamber must be removed. Under local anesthesia, the contents of the chamber are cleaned out, the chamber is sterilized and filled with a substance will not allow bacteria to come back and live in that area. That is a “root canal” or as we call it, endodontics. I like to use this analogy. A tooth is like a sink with one or more drains in the bottom of it. If you can seal off the drains, the sink will hold water. Likewise, if the small holes at the end of the pulp chamber are sealed off, the
Root canal treatment treats the inner aspects of a tooth to make the tissues surrounding a tooth’s root free of bacterial infection and irritating substances. The treatment is done to remove bacteria, nerve tissue, the organic debris and bacterial toxins inside the tooth. First it is necessary to remove bacteria, nerve tissue, the organic debris and bacterial toxins inside the tooth. Then root canal material is filled inside the tooth. And afterwards crowning is done if necessary.
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