Eliminate Pain and Treat Infections with Root Canal Therapy
Often, when people think of root canal therapy they associate it with pain. The pain experienced is from the infected tooth, which is then relieved through root canal therapy. Known to restore and save an average of 17 million teeth each year, root canal therapy helps to keep your tooth and stop the pain, which is always better than having a tooth extraction.
When decay is likely to damage or has already killed a tooth, root canal therapy is needed. During a root canal, your dentist in Detroit at Grand River Family Dentistry removes the pulp from the center of a tooth and fills the pulp cavity. This can prevent the development of a painful infection in the pulp that could potentially spread to other teeth. A root canal can also treat an infection that has developed into an abscessed tooth, which can relieve toothache, stop infection, and promote healing.
Your Downers Grove Dentist Explains: What is Root Canal Therapy?
Your tooth is made up of a hard protective shell called enamel, a softer middle layer called dentin and a soft tissue inner layer called the dental pulp. Composed of nerve tissue, lymph tissue and blood vessels, the dental pulp is considered a vital part of your tooth. If your dental pulp is severely damaged, the tooth begins to die. Root canal therapy is often the best treatment to prevent and eliminate infection, preventing tooth loss.
Signs you might need a root canal include:
- Minimal to severe pain
- Tooth discoloration
- Swelling and irritation in the surrounding gum tissue
- Signs of infection visible on a radiograph
Root canal therapy allows your Detroit dentist to save your teeth in the safest way possible and is used to find the cause and treat the problems of the dental pulp. The narrow channels beneath the pulp chamber in the inner part of your tooth are hollowed out and cleaned through root canal therapy and the roots are filled with materials that are designed to prevent pain and infection from recurring.