Do I Need A Root Canal? Possible Signs and Symptoms

A root canal involves carefully removing diseased pulp and decaying roots from a tooth. Enamel, dentin, and a pulpy inner core that extends to the root in your jawbone make up your teeth.  The core of the tooth has nerves, blood vessels, and connective tissue. Harmful compounds in the pulp chamber might cause inflammation, infection, or necrosis. Root canals are needed to repair the damage, but what symptoms suggest you might need to receive this treatment?

What is a Root Canal?

Like a thorough dental cleaning, root canal therapy gently removes disease and protects the tooth. Your dentist will execute a sequence of measures to treat the tooth during a root canal.

• Remove decay and bacteria from tooth pulp, root, and nerve.
• Use antibiotics to sanitize the treatment area.
• Restore empty root spaces.
• We’ll apply a dental sealant to prevent new deterioration.
• Your trusted general dentist or endodontist can perform a root canal operation.

Root canal therapy prevents tooth decay and preserves your natural tooth. It makes the tooth more fragile. That is why root canal-treated teeth often have dental crowns.

Factors That Can Indicate the Need For a Root Canal

• Severe Tooth Pain

Root canals may be needed if you have persistent dental pain. Your tooth discomfort may be constant or intermittent. Pain may be deep in your tooth. You may also experience facial, jaw, or other tooth pain. Besides root canals, tooth discomfort may have other causes. Alternatives include gum disease and possible causes of pain, including cavities, sinus infections, broken fillings, and infected teeth.

• Heat And Cold Sensitivity 

Is your tooth painful after eating warm food or drinking coffee? Ice cream or cold water may irritate your tooth. The sensitivity may feel like a dull ache or a sharp pain. Having persistent pain even after stopping eating or drinking may require a root canal. When your tooth hurts when you eat or drink something hot or cold, your blood vessels and nerves may be infected or injured.

• Discoloured Teeth

An infection in the pulp might stain your tooth. Trauma or tissue breakdown can harm the roots and turn the tooth grayish-black. When a tooth changes colour, you should consult a dentist near you, even if it has other explanations. 

• Pain When You Eat or Touch the Tooth

If your tooth is sensitive to touch or food, you may need a root canal due to serious dental decay or nerve damage. It is especially true if the sensitivity persists after stopping eating. The pulp dying may make the ligament around an infected tooth’s root tip hypersensitive. Biting pressure can irritate the ligament due to dying pulp debris.

• Formation of a Pimple or Abscess on the Gums

Swollen gums near a painful tooth may signal a root canal. The swelling may change. It may hurt to touch it. Acidic pulp tissue waste can cause edema outside the root tip. You may get gum pimples: a gum boil, parulis, or abscess. Pimples may leak pus from a tooth infection. Your breath and mouth may taste bad. When it does, it’s time to visit a dental clinic in Nanaimo.

• A Chipped or Cracked Tooth

After a chipped or cracked tooth from an accident, contact sport, or severe chewing, bacteria can cause inflammation and infection. The nerves of a tooth can be damaged even if they don’t chip or shatter. Root canal therapy may be necessary if inflammation of the nerve has caused pain and sensitivity.

Does a Root Canal Hurt?

Though scary, modern dentistry makes root canals like deep fillings. The procedure is painless because your dentist numbs your teeth and gums using a local anesthetic. Antibiotics are routinely used before root canals.  Root canals and large fillings take longer. Under anesthesia, the dentist will carefully remove cavities, disinfect the tooth roots, and rebuild them. Dentists isolate root canal teeth with rubber dams. Prevention keeps infectious particles out of your mouth. Root canals often cause mouth pain. Your dentist may recommend Tylenol or Advil. The first soreness was intense, but it subsided after a day of root canal therapy near you. It was reduced to nearly nothing after a week.

Talk with Our Expert Dental Staff Today 

An infection in the pulp and root of your tooth might cause pain and discomfort. See a dentist at Uplands Dental Clinic as soon as possible for the diagnosis and treatment of chronic tooth pain or other symptoms. Fear about the root canal dental operation is understandable, given the name, yet the procedure itself is completely painless. Shortly after starting treatment, nearly everyone reports feeling better.