Root Canal Treatment

Orchard House Dental Practice

Root Canal Therapy, Root Treatment, or Root Filling, whatever you choose to call it – it doesn’t have the best reputation, but there really is nothing better than your own teeth!

Should dental caries (decay) extend deep enough inside the dentine layer of a tooth, the pulp chamber (blood and nerve supply inside the tooth) begins to get affected causing pain. If left untreated, the tooth will eventually become infected and a dental abscess can form. Pain is not always felt in the early stages of a dental infection.

Dental trauma can also lead to an infected tooth. In some cases, the tooth can darken in colour, which may mean that the nerve of the tooth has died (or is dying) as a result of the infection.

One of the treatment options for an infected tooth is root canal treatment.

During the treatment, the infected nerve and tooth tissue are removed from the tooth, the root canal (or canals) are cleaned and disinfected, and finally filled. A filling is then placed over the top to seal the tooth. Root-treated teeth can weaken and, since the nerve supply from the tooth to the brain has been removed, one can bite much harder on the tooth since the normal tactile feedback is lost; this could lead to the tooth fracturing beyond repair as a result. For this reason, often a crown is required to reinforce the integrity of the tooth and prevent loss of the root-treated tooth in the long term.

Here at Orchard House, we endeavour to provide you with our best efforts to try to get your teeth healthy again.