Root Canal Treatment

While there are many reasons for “why a root canal is needed”, but what about the lingering question “when is a root canal needed?”

When pain strikes, it is often difficult to put your mind to your routine work and you are constantly thinking about “are these root canal pain symptoms”, “are these signs of root canal treatment?”, “how do I know I need a root canal?” etc. However, this is what your dentist or endodontist will determine.

To determine when a filling is required and when a root canal is needed, a qualified dentist checks all signs and symptoms of the patient. Some symptoms that patients are likely to experience and that also help the dentist evaluate and diagnose the case better are:

– Pain – A pulsating kind of pain that increases on changing posture, mainly while lying down or at night causing excessive pain at night. The tooth is extremely sensitive and painful to touch, tapping, and biting forces.
– Swelling in the gums and surrounding tissue- In most cases, patients visit their dentists when their tooth ache is probably a few days or weeks old and they haven’t been able to reduce it using painkillers.

In order to determine when is a root canal required in a patient, dentist use the following methods:

– X-rays- These are inevitable in diagnosing tooth decay, especially to determine when is a root canal needed
– Thermal and electric testing on the tooth to determine if it is alive or dead
– Tapping and percussing the tooth to evaluate patient’s symptoms
– Checking for obvious nerve exposure while removing decay on the tooth surface
– Cavity test
– Mobility of the tooth
– Chipping or cracked tooth

Root canal treatment procedure

Now that you have got a brief idea about when is a root canal required, and learning about what the various symptoms that demand a root canal treatment, the next question that creates waves of anxiety in a patient’s mind is “Are root canals painful?”

Thanks to the modern technology, equipment and pain control methods, root canal treatments are a breeze through for both the patient as well as the dentist. Once your dentist anaesthetises your tooth and the surrounding area, the pain experienced by you reduces and your tooth and surrounding area starts to get numb.

Once the tooth is numbed, patients are automatically put at ease while the dentist or endodontist carries out the procedure. A root canal treatment takes slightly longer and may require more sittings than a filling. After the infected root canal is cleaned and sterilised, your dentist fills an inert material into the canals and seals them.

Your tooth is now painless and requires a cap to support it.