Now that’s a procedure that sends chills down the spine for most of us, mainly because of what we have heard from our friends and family.
The truth is quite the contrary. The RCT procedure actually alleviates the pain. In many cases, patients experiencing severe pain due to an inflamed nerve or infection around the root of a tooth, experience immediate relief after the RCT.
Trauma or extensive decay can cause the nerve inside the tooth to get injured. The affected nerve tissue must be removed from the root chamber and the canals should be sterilized to prevent infection. Once the chamber has been thoroughly cleaned, the canals are filled up with a special material to prevent re infection.
Shortly after the root canal treatment, the tooth in most cases needs to be crowned as it has lost blood supply and no longer receives minerals from the body. It becomes more brittle and weak and is therefore susceptible to fracture. A crown would protect the remaining tooth structure.
Root canal treatment is a highly successful procedure, but there are rare cases where the area around the nerve of the tooth gets re-infected, in which case the tooth needs to be retreated.
The root canal treatment may take several visits to be completed depending on the severity of the infection. Your dentist will advise you on the appropriate and most successful course of action during your initial consultation.