Rescue your tooth with a root canal

Root canals can repair your decayed or damaged tooth and save it, so that it doesn’t have to be removed.

Our teeth are made up of several parts, including the crown — the white part of the tooth above the gums — and the root below the gums, which contains pulp, which is the soft tissue inside your tooth. This soft tissue contains blood vessels and nerves, and also provides nourishment for healthy teeth. Without proper care — or as the result of trauma to the tooth — this pulp can become infected. Once your tooth is infected, you may experience swelling and pain near the site, and you’re at risk of losing your tooth completely due to bacterial damage to the bone surrounding your tooth.

A root canal is a procedure to clean the canals of your tooth root in order to save the tooth and seal against future decay.

What to expect during root canal repair

Root canal treatments typically take one or two additional office visits to complete. We will use local anesthesia to keep the procedure painless and easy for you. Before beginning, we’ll take x-rays of your tooth and the bone surrounding it, numb you with the local anesthesia, and apply a thin rubber sheet over your tooth to protect it and keep it dry during the procedure.

A root canal repair treatment involves:

• Creating an opening at the top of your tooth, then removing the nerve from inside the tooth and root canals
• Cleaning and treating inside the tooth and root, then filling them with a material to seal the canals off from future infection
• Sealing the top of the tooth with a temporary filling that will be replaced with a more permanent crown or filling at your follow-up visit
• You may also be prescribed antibiotics if we have concerns about the infection continuing to spread

If you’re experiencing pain and swelling due to a tooth infection, it’s important to schedule a consultation as soon as possible so we can treat your pain and help save your tooth.