Published on 12:00 AM, July 03, 2022

At what stage does your tooth need root canal treatment?

If your teeth are severely damaged, your dentist may recommend root canal treatment. If you are curious about what exactly happens during a root canal treatment, go through the article, and you will be ready for your treatment. But, first, you need to know what a root canal treatment is.

A root canal is a dental procedure that involves the removal of the pulp. The pulp's nerves, connective tissue, and blood vessels help teeth grow. Dentists can only confirm if you need a root canal, but some factors must be considered.

The most common root canal symptoms include:

Constant pain: It is a pain that bothers you constantly or occasionally. This pain may go away from time to time; however, it can come back suddenly.

If you have a toothache while enjoying your daily coffee (hot beverage) or ice cream (cold beverage or desserts), you may need root canal treatment.

The Root Canal Treatment (RCT) is needed when one of your teeth gets infected, pus accumulates at the base of your tooth, and the gums become swollen or soft.

You may have boils on your gums; pus from infected teeth may cause an unpleasant taste or odour. Sometimes the wound pus does not drain. Hence, visually, your jaw may swell.

When your tooth decay is infected, it causes your teeth to look black. This is due to the poor blood supply to the teeth.

If you have pain while eating or touching your teeth, it might indicate that the nerves around the gums are damaged.

The bacteria can get into your tooth decay if you accidentally break your teeth while playing sports or bite into a hard tooth and catch the tooth's crown.

An infected tooth may feel loose. It is due to the accumulation of pus in an infected pulp, which can soften tooth bones.

Your dentist might suggest a root canal treatment for you if the teeth start to move also.

RCT may require one or two appointments, depending on infected teeth. Root canals take 30-60 minutes. An hour and a half is needed to treat a large tooth with multiple roots. Before starting a root canal, your dentist should X-ray the damaged tooth. This determines the damage and whether a root canal is needed.

Root canals prevent infection from spreading to other teeth, reduce jaw bone damage, and prevent tooth loss.

The writer is the founder of Dental Pixel. Email: adily.adib@gmail.com