Elmhurst Root Canal Dentist Reviews What Happens During a Root Canal Therapy
When most patients think of “root canal therapy,” they immediately panic—they can’t imagine a scenario in which root canal treatment won’t be painful or traumatizing. The truth is that modern root canal therapy with effective sedation treatment root canals are as comfortable as having a normal filling. Today we’re going to review what happens during a standard root canal treatment. Many patients feel much more comfortable about pursuing treatment once they understand exactly what will happen.
Before you undergo root canal therapy, you’ll meet with our Elmhurst root canal dentist so that they can evaluate the health of your teeth. If it appears that you have advanced dental decay, the dentist will perform an X-ray. This X-ray will allow your dentist to see the shape of your affected root canal and assess the surrounding tissues for infection.
One of the first things your dentist will do as he/she begins the root canal is administer anesthesia to keep you calm and comfortable during your procedure. Then your dentist will isolate the affected tooth to keep it dry during treatment. In order to keep saliva from interfering with procedure, your dentist will surround the tooth with rubber sheeting.
Next the dentist simply drills a hole into the tooth—the infected dental material will be removed through this small hole. Then your dentist will use increasingly large root canal files to excavate down the tooth and pull up the infected material, cleansing the inside of the tooth. Remnants of infected material will be flushed away with water.
When the tooth has been effectively hollowed out and cleaned, the last step is to seal the tooth up, so that its still functional and natural looking. The tooth will be sealed with a filling. This filling will either be placed on the same day as your root canal, or in the week after. If your dentist places your filling in the week after your procedure, you’ll receive a temporary filling until your permanent filling can be placed. The filling process consists of filling the hollowed out tooth with a substance called gutta percha and then placing a dental filling over the access hole.
This is the process for a simple root canal treatment—as you can see this process can be completed efficiently and expediently with comfortable sedation options. Give our Elmhurst Root Canal dental office a call for more information or to schedule an appointment!