Root canal treatment is a dental process that eliminates infection in dental pulps which is an option to preserve than to remove the teeth.
- When caries spread into dental pulps, root canal treatment is needed to protect from jaw infection.
- Toothache from irreversible pulpitis
- Non-vital tooth
- Root canal preparation to bond the post and crown when the dentin is less.
Accurate diagnosis is required for the treatment especially in the case of reversible pulpitis. There will be some hyper-sensitive and they will be recovered after a while. In some cases the symptom is nearly like irreversible pulpitis. Therefore, before considering a root canal treatment, careful diagnosis is required as follows:
- Inquire the symptom
- Diagnose from oral cavity x-ray
- Diagnose using vitality tester
- Other diagnosis such as bite test, cold test and hot test
- Follow up symptom periodically
- Eliminate caries and infected parts
- Clean and insert antibiotic in root canal. In some cases it may need more than 1 time treatment to completely eliminate root canal.
- Filling root canal
- Restore dentin with filler or post and crown.
Primary objectives of root canal treatment is eliminate germs in all pulps and root canals including to filling the root canal perfectly in order to protect from repeated infection. Therefore, in addition to the treatment by the specialized dentist, the selection of highly efficient appliances and high standard in applying sterilized appliances are the additional factors for rapid treatment and better results.
1-3 days after the root canal treatment there may be some pain due to infection and inflaming before the treatment which the symptom can be relieved by taking painkillers for about 1-3 days and the pain will disappear.
Avoid chewing solid food during the root canal treatment because the dentin is less after the root treatment. Chewed solid food may break the teeth or the filler may be removed. Should meet the dentist at appointment time to prevent the spread of germs in root canal.
After the root canal treatment process, the teeth should be restored with post and crown in order to protect the breaking of the teeth as well as the oral cavity should be taken care of by regularly brushing and using dental floss.