Root Canal Treatment

Inside your tooth’s hard outer shell of enamel and dentine is a nourishing pulp of blood vessels, lymph vessels and nerves. The root canals, which contain the pulp, extend to the bone.

An infected root canal looks like the following diagram:

Deep tooth decay, or an injury, can cause serious damage and infection to the pulp’s nerves and vessels. If left untreated this can cause an abscess spreading to the area outside of the tooth. Once the pulp is infected, the options for treatment are: Root Canal Treatment or Extraction.

Root canal, or endodontic, treatment cleans out the infected pulp chamber and repairs the damage. By doing this the tooth can be saved.

Some indications of the need for root canal treatment may be:

• Spontaneous pain or throbbing while biting.
• Sensitivity to hot and cold foods not relieved by other means.
• Severe decay or an injury that creates an abscess (infection) in the bone.

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The Root Canal Treatment Procedure

Here at the University Dental Centre, we take every care in ensuring a comfortable procedure for our patients. The animation below explains the procedure

1. After profound anethesia is given to the patient, an opening is made into the pulp chamber of the tooth.
2. Files are placed into the canal to determine the length of the roots.
3. The canals are cleaned and shaped by using thread-like rotary instruments, which, along with irrigation, remove the infected pulp tissue. We use Nickel-Titanium instruments which minimises the time of the procedure.
4. The root canals are sealed with a biologically compatible material called gutta percha.
5. The tooth can be permanently restored by placing a filling. Optimum long-term results are obtained by placing a crown over the tooth, since root-filled teeth have an increased tendency to fracture.

Is the procedure painful?

You will be given a local anaesthetic during the procedure and this will make the treatment virtually painless.

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