health and fitness

If you are getting a root canal, you will need to go through several office visits with a dentist or an endodentist, a dentist that specializes in tooth nerves. The kind of dentist that you go to for your procedure will depend on how difficult your case is overall. Naturally, your dentist will talk to you about what kind of work would be best for your particular case, but to find out what happens during the root canal procedure, read on.

As a dentist I’ve done numerous root canals. Of all the procedures I do, this is the one that seems to strike fear in the heart of most patients. Hopefully by end of this article, any misconceptions you may have will be resolved . A root canal is a procedure designed to save a tooth from being lost. Its goal is to remove the bacterial infection within the canals of the tooth and to preserve it’s integrity. Root canals need not be painful. The majority of the time the nerve is dead, so no pain should be felt, even without anesthetic. There are, however, times when pockets of live nerve may exist or an abscess is present. An abscess is a pocket of gas and pus that puts pressure on the tooth. Abscesses are uncomfortable and difficult to numb. Under these circumstances, some discomfort may be experienced. Invariably an experienced dentist may opt to put the patient on antibiotics first, reducing the abscess and its discomfort before starting the root canal procedure. In the case of literally hitting a live nerve, anesthetic can be directly applied to the site to give instant relief.