Why do you need Root Canal Treatment?

Our teeth also contain nerves inside them. Unlike other organs, the nerves of a tooth are not primarily important for the tooth's functionality. The main role of the teeth's nerves is sensory. It helps the teeth to sense temperatures like hot, cold and other feelings like pain.

Even though the nerves are not mandatory for a tooth's health, an infection in the nerves chamber will put the entire tooth at risk of infection. 

Extracting the diseased or infected nerves of the tooth with Root Canal Treatment (RCT) is the only solution to protect the tooth. Otherwise, tooth extraction is required.

When do you need Root Canal Treatment?

Root Canal Therapy also known as Endodontic Treatment is required in cases when the infection is deep and reaches a tooth's pulp chamber. 

• Tooth decay is the main culprit which harms our teeth and make prone to bacterial invasion. 

• Apart from cavities, infection developed inside a tooth infect the soft tissues present inside a tooth.

• Dental trauma or injuries, habits like teeth grinding also provide a way for infection-causing agents to taint the inner regions of a tooth.

• If you get frequent dental works in a tooth, it may also cause infections or damage inside the tooth.

Whatever the reason behind the tooth's infection, it will reach the pulp chamber of the tooth if the infection is not treated in the initial stage. The pulp is the soft region present in the center of a tooth within the root canal.

When the pulp chamber gets affected, it puts the entire root canal which holds the connective tissues, blood vessels and nerves of the tooth at risk of infection.

Symptoms that show you need Root Canal Therapy

1) Tooth Pain and Sensitive teeth

Toothache and Sensitivity are the common symptoms that indicate a risk or infection in our teeth. When the infection becomes worse or reaches the deeper layers of a tooth, it will intensify the tooth pain. Sometimes, the pain will come and persists for a little while.

2) Inflammation in the jaw, neck and face

If the infection causing agents and germs stay in a tooth for a while, it causes severe pain. It is followed by inflammation of tissues in the diseased tooth. The infection will begin to spread to the tooth's surrounding regions like jaw.

Then it causes swelling in the jaw bone, pain in the neck and other discomforts in the facial muscles.

3) Tooth Discoloration

When a tooth encounters a nerve damage, the blood vessels present in the root canal cannot supply blood effectively. It affects the teeth's ability to fight against the stain causing agents and bacteria. It is also a reason behind the tooth discoloration.

When you notice such pain and discoloration in a tooth, visit an Endodontist or Root Canal Specialist.

What will happen if you do not extract the infected nerves?

As mentioned in the above section, the tooth's actual performance is minimized because of the drop in blood supply occurred due to nerve damage. Thus, the tooth cannot fight effectively against the bacteria.

It makes the diseased tooth space for the oral bacteria to proliferate. It results in serious discomforts like:

• Jaw bone infection

• Tooth bone loss

• Oral bacteria goes deeper inside the tooth and penetrate the gum region and cause periodontal diseases.

Conclusion

Many people avert Endodontic treatments because it is painful. Unlike they think, you will not encounter any pain during the RCT procedure as the tooth is numbed with anesthetics in the process.

Root Canal Specialists take care of your infected tooth without extracting. You can procure the same benefit by extracting the tooth and restore it with dental bridges, dental implants and other prosthodontics appliances but they are time consumable and quite costly when compared to Endodontic Treatments.