Root Canal Therapy

Preserve Your Smile with Root Canal Therapy

While our teeth are strong and sturdy, they aren’t indestructible. Teeth can become damaged due to decay and trauma for several reasons, and when this happens, the living nerves and tissues inside of your teeth, called dental pulp, become susceptible to tooth infection.

Tooth infection requires immediate treatment, or it can spread to other parts of the mouth and eventually other areas of the body. Fortunately, if an infection is caught in time, our dentists can save your natural tooth using root canal therapy.

What Is Root Canal Therapy?

Root canal therapy involves removing damaged enamel and infected material from inside of a tooth. This area of your tooth, called the pulp chamber, is home to sensitive nerve endings that bring pain when infected. With root canal therapy, our Belvidere dentists will remove the infection and save your tooth from extraction.

Signs You May Need Root Canal Treatment

Oral infections occur when a cavity, or tooth decay, is left untreated for an extended period of time. Undergoing a root canal treatment is only an option if the infection is caught in time. That’s why it’s important to be on the lookout for signs that you may require root canal therapy. Some common signs include:

• Difficulty chewing
• Sensitivity to hot and cold temperatures
• Damage to your gums or the bone surrounding the tooth
• Discoloration or darkening of the tooth
• Severe tooth pain
• Loosening of the tooth
• Swollen gums or abscesses on the gums
• Dental trauma/decay such as holes, cracks, and chips in your teeth
• Crowding

Benefits of Root Canal Therapy

Tooth infection only gets worse the longer it’s left untreated. Root canal therapy can be extremely helpful for preserving your smile and your overall health, offering benefits such as:

• Enhanced oral health
• Protects your overall health
• Alleviation of pain, swelling, sensitivity, and throbbing
• Helps prevent infection from returning
• Saves teeth from extraction
• Prevents the need for more costly restorations and time consuming procedures

The Root Canal Therapy Process

Consultation

You’ll undergo a consultation with one of our dentists, where they’ll thoroughly examine your mouth, review your medical history, and discuss your oral health goals. The information they gather during your consultation will allow them to determine if root canal therapy is the best treatment option for you. Your dentist can also offer sedation dentistry options if you experience dental anxiety and need help relaxing during your procedure. Once you and your dentist have decided to move forward with root canal therapy, we’ll schedule your next appointment.

Preparation

At your root canal treatment appointment, we’ll ensure the tooth stays free of debris and saliva during the procedure by cleaning your mouth out and applying a rubber dam around the targeted tooth. We’ll also numb the area around the affected tooth using a local anesthetic to make sure you don’t experience any pain.

The Procedure

Once we’re sure the anesthetic has set in and any chosen sedatives are working, our dentists will create a small opening in your tooth to access the dental pulp. From there, they’ll completely remove the infected pulp and any damaged or decayed tooth material, and thoroughly disinfect the inside of the tooth to clear out any infection.

After your tooth is completely clean, your dentist will fill the root canals, the hollow spaces in your tooth that house the dental pulp as well as your tooth’s root system, with a special dental adhesive called gutta-percha.

They’ll apply a filling over the gutta-percha to further seal off and reinforce the tooth, helping prevent reinfection and ensuring the tooth retains its structural integrity. Depending on your case, the damaged tooth can be restored with a porcelain crown.