Phone: (202) 783 - 3368 -
Hours: Monday to Friday 7:30 AM to 4:00 PM
Root Canal (Endodontic) Treatment
What is Root Canal treatment?
The term “root canal” commonly refers to the main canals within the dentin of the tooth. Root canals contain a loose connective tissue – the dental pulp.
The dental pulp sometimes becomes infected and inflamed; generally due to decay or cracking that allow the entry of microorganisms into the root canal. If this happens, you would need root canal treatment. The root canal treatment involves accessing the pulp chamber or the root canals and removing the infected parts by surgical intervention.
How is it done?
To cure the root canal infection and save the tooth, we drill into the pulp chamber and remove the infected pulp by scraping it out of the root canals. Once this is done, we fill your teeth cavity with an inert material and seal up the opening. After the root canal treatment, we will protect your tooth with a crown that covers the cusps of the tooth. A root canal is very likely to fail if a permanent filling or crown is not placed to protect the tooth.
What can you expect?
Even though many patients dread root canal treatment, the approach we use at our dental practice makes it a painless procedure.
Follow-up
Ninety seven percentage of root canal treatments are successful. Follow-up examinations and X-rays can determine the success of the treatment. We schedule your follow-up appointments on a case by case basis.
What are the risks?
With care and proper attention, most root canal treated teeth can last many years.
Many people believe that once root canal treatment is performed the affected tooth cannot decay. This is not true. A tooth with a root canal treatment is still vulnerable to decay. Without proper home care and an adequate fluoride source the tooth can become severely decayed. Since the nerve has been removed, the decay can happen without the patient's knowledge. Therefore it is very important to have regular X-rays taken of the root canal to ensure that the tooth is not developing any problems.
There can be situations in which a root canal treatment has to be redone. Some scenarios where this can happen are:- Some of the diseased root canal offshoots that went undetected
- The inert filling does not completely seal off the roots from micro-organisms
- The tooth got damaged during the procedure (perforation)
- The tooth fractures between or within the roots
- If a permanent filling or crown is not placed to protect the tooth.