Root Canals:
The Most Misunderstood
Tooth
Years ago, a badly infected tooth was doomed to be pulled. Today, that's a last resort. Removal of the infection within a sick tooth is called root canal treatment. The misunderstanding comes from the extreme variety of signs, symptoms and pain that can be associated with a tooth needing canal treatment. Some are painless to patients and are only discovered by careful x-ray diagnosis, usually with those x-rays (periapicals or panoramic films) taken only every three to five years by your dentist. The every six month type of x-rays, called bite-wings, do not show the root tips and cannot detect abscesses very well. Others hurt like the dickens and literally drive patients to the dental office at 2:00 o’clock in the morning.
Root canals like the latter give dentistry a bad name, and it is often the procrastination in making an appointment by the suffering patient that gives rise to the more extreme cases. Dental cavities are a lot like Fram Oil Filters, its easier and cheaper to fill a small hole than rebuild the entire engine. Unfortunately, cavities never just go away; they grow and grow until nothing is left.
Root canal therapy consists of: 1) the removal of the infected pulp that lies within the root canals of the tooth, and 2) the sealing of the root ends to prohibit any further infection. The pulp is the tooth’s center core of soft tissue (nerves blood vessels and fibers). When the dentist removes a "nerve" from a tooth, he really removes pulpal tissue that contains the nerve. Removing the pulp from the tooth does not produce a "dead" tooth. It will be very much alive and functioning because it has a source of blood and nerve supply from the surrounding tissues that hold it in place. The tooth will have no sense of feeling to hot and cold liquids or cold air because the nerve has been removed, but the tooth itself is usually fine: it should last as long as your other teeth and could even be eventually used as an anchor tooth for a crown or bridge. Most root canal treated teeth do need structural support with posts, cores, and crowns since most large cavities significantly weaken the enamel cusps used for chewing.
The bottom line: pain is not the best indicator of an impending problem. We can detect cavities months and even years before a person may feel pain. Never wait until it hurts to "fix" it. But, by all means, if it does get a twinge, call our office and let us do some early detective work to prevent a worsening of your condition. Time is definitely on your side if you act prudently.
Sincerely yours,
Dr. Bill Williams
Dr. David Hayward