What Is Root Canal Treatment And Do You Need One?

Oral hygiene is essential to your overall body and mental well-being. If you fail to improve your oral hygiene, you can develop other health complications like diabetes, mouth cancer, heart diseases, osteoporosis, dementia, etc.  

One of the main symptoms of poor oral health is tooth decay, which is damage to your teeth caused by bacterial infection. When bacteria invade your mouth, you can develop holes or cavities in your teeth.  

Frequent flossing and washing your teeth regularly at home can help you deal with minor decays. However, if you’ve got a seriously infected or decayed tooth, you may want to visit a dentist for a root canal.  

This article has all you might want to know about root canal treatment. You’ll learn what it is, the reasons you may need to conduct it, and how to find a suitable dentist. Read on to get enlightened.  

What Is Root Canal Treatment?

Root canal treatment is a practice of eliminating bacteria from teeth. It ensures you’re not losing your teeth through extractions.

When you undergo a root canal procedure, the infected pulp is removed. From there, the dentist cleans the inside of a tooth to remove bacteria and then seals it. It’s one of the best strategies to ensure you maintain your natural teeth. For more information about root canal treatment, you can visit Durangodmd.com or other reputable sites.  

Do You Need A Root Canal Treatment?

As noted earlier, a root canal is necessary if you don’t want to lose your teeth through extractions. But how do you know that you need to perform a root canal procedure?  

The best way to tell that you need a root canal is to visit your doctor for an examination. However, if you see the symptoms below, you may conclude that you need a root canal.  

1. Severe Pain On Your Teeth

Are you experiencing persistent pain in your teeth? If yes, this might signify that you need a root canal.  

Sharp pains are a result of teeth decay. This happens especially when bacteria and other micro-organisms infect your teeth.  

When bacteria are in your mouth, they can cause injury to your teeth by eroding your pulp. This exposes the inner part of your teeth to external infections, thus feeling pain. For that reason, you might consider doing a root canal.  

Your dentist will clean the infected part of your teeth. This helps remove bacteria, thus preventing further teeth decay.  

2. Sensitivity To Cold Or Heat

Another sign you need a root canal is when your teeth become too sensitive to cold or heat.

Apart from tooth decay, bacteria in your mouth can also damage your nervous system. This causes you to become too sensitive to cold or warm drinks or food items. The best remedy to this is doing a root canal.  

With a comprehensive root canal procedure, you can remove all the harmful bacteria in your teeth. This ensures that your blood vessels and nervous system aren’t prone to infections.  

3. Swollen Gums

Gums are essential parts of your mouth. They help support and keep your teeth firm.  However, sometimes you may have swollen gums, thus affecting your oral health.  

Other causes like malnutrition and pregnancy might lead to swollen gums. However, the most common cause is poor oral hygiene.   

When you fail to maintain good oral health, plaque (caused by a combination of food particles and bacteria) may build up on your teeth and gums.  

If plaque remains in your gums for a prolonged time, it might form tartar. Tartar is hardened plaque that you can hardly remove with simple flossing and washing of teeth. That’s why you need to visit a dentist for a professional cleaning.

A service provider will use essential chemicals to wash your mouth to eliminate food particles and bacteria. This prevents plaque from forming on your teeth. It’s one of the most effective ways to deal with swollen gums.  

4. Cracked Teeth

Many causes can lead to cracked teeth. These include biting hard foods, chewing ice-creams, and teeth grinding. Besides, age can also cause cracked teeth. Many of them happen at 50 years and above.  

When your teeth crack, it exposes the internal part of your teeth to bacteria, leading to infections. Such a condition will require a root canal to remove bacteria from your teeth.   

How To Prepare For A Root Canal?

A root canal might be a daunting procedure, and most people associate it with a lot of pain. However, with enough research, and proper preparedness, you can have a successful root canal procedure.  

That said, you can ensure you’re adequately prepared for a root canal by:  

1. Avoid Alcohol Before The Procedure

If you drink alcohol, it’d be a good idea to avoid it at least 24 hours before the root canal procedure. Alcohol can dry up your mouth, making the procedure more complex than it should be. Dry mouth is one of the major causes of increased pain in the mouth during a root canal procedure.  

Apart from that, your dentist will inject you with some medicines which could react with alcohol components. This can harm your general health.  

Besides, you should also avoid smoking before and after root canal treatment. Tobacco may prolong your recovery period. Therefore, to ensure you’ve got a smooth root canal procedure and boost your recovery, make sure you avoid alcohol and cigarettes before visiting your dentist.  

2. Eat Healthy Diet Before The Procedure

A root canal procedure involves the district injecting an anesthetic into your gums, numbing your mouth. For that reason, you might not be able to eat immediately after a root canal procedure. That’s why it’s advisable to eat a healthy meal before visiting your doctor. It ensures you’ve got the necessary nutrients for your recovery journey. Ask your dentist which types of foods you should eat and which ones to avoid.  

3. Get Enough Sleep

Another effective way to prepare for root canal treatment is to have enough sleep the night before the procedure. Besides, better sleep helps optimize your immune system and enables you to endure the root canal procedure.  

Also, you need better sleep after the treatment to improve your recovery process. Note that most body repairs happen when you’re sleeping or resting. For that reason, you might want to find effective ways to enhance your sleep. This may include avoiding noisy areas, avoiding stress, using a sleep pillow, exercising, and others.  

4. Find Antibiotics

Performing a root canal involves exposing your inner body parts to infections. When this happens, it can lead to other complex health conditions. Besides, it can prolong your recovery process. That’s why you need to have antibiotics with you when visiting your dentist. They can help deal with any infection that might come with root canal treatment.

Apart from antibiotics, it’s advisable to take painkillers before the procedure. This helps reduce inflammation of the gums.  

Sometimes you might not know what medications to carry with you. For that reason, you may want to ask your dentist to recommend the best antibiotics and painkillers for you.  

5. Have An Aftercare Plan

You might think that the root canal procedure immediately ends after you leave your dentist’s office. But that’s not true. There are other things you need to consider to promote your healing process. One of them is the aftercare plan.  

A root canal treatment is a complex procedure that can drain all your energy.  Therefore, it might be a challenge to take yourself home.

Arranging for an aftercare plan ensures you’ve someone to accompany you to your home. This can be your sibling, parent, friend, or taxi driver.  

Besides, even after reaching home, you might not be able to perform your routine tasks like cooking, washing clothes and utensils, taking care of your children and cattle. For that reason, consider asking someone you trust to assist you in performing such tasks.  

5. Arrange For Finances

Depending on where you live and your insurance coverage, the root canal procedure may be an expensive undertaking. You also need to cover other expenses like transport charges.

Therefore, make sure you arrange for finances before visiting your dentist. And if you plan to seek treatment through your medical schemes, be sure to call your insurance companies. This ensures you’ve got a smooth root canal procedure.

Tips To Find The Right Root Canal Dentist

There are several dentists out there. However, not all of them can be suitable for your root canal procedure. You can ensure you connect with the right service provider by considering the following factors:  

1. Qualifications And License

Qualifications are probably the essential factor to consider when choosing a root canal specialist. This is important because some people claim to be dentists, which isn’t the case.  

Any person who wishes to provide dental services should possess the minimum required professional qualifications. This includes a bachelor’s degree in medicine and specialized training in dental health.  

Apart from that, such an individual must be a member of a recognized medical professional body. These are firms responsible for issuing licenses or practicing certificates to qualified dental officers. Therefore, to ensure you hire the right dentist, ensure you see their qualifications and license.  

2. Experience

Although you might connect with the most qualified dentist in town, they might not provide better root canal services if they’re not as experienced. Research to find an experienced service provider.

One of the best ways to find an experienced root canal service provider is to determine when their services were launched. A company with many years in the market may have more experience than one recently incorporated.  

Besides, you need to be sure of the experience of specific dentists who will handle your case. Such individuals should also have many years of working experience handling cases similar to yours.  

3. Your Budget

Budget is another essential factor to consider when selecting a root canal service provider. Conduct a price comparison and find a dentist who can work with your budget.  

However, don’t compromise the quality of services for low price deals. Some companies providing dental services at low prices might be utilizing outdated tools and inexperienced staff. Therefore, whichever your budget, make sure you get root canal treatment for a reasonable price.  

4. Location

Although ignored by many dental patients, location is very critical when finding a root canal specialist. Find a service provider within the location or near you.  

Connecting with a dentist near you ensures you can quickly find medication when necessary. Besides, it helps eliminate a lot of commuting hassles like traveling long distances. However, if you can’t get a suitable dentist within the locality, you can consider finding them in other places.  

5. Technologies Used

Modern technologies play a significant role in all sectors of the economy, and dental care isn’t an exemption. Dentists use automated tools to simplify the root canal process and improve their patients’ experience. Make sure you connect with a service provider who uses advanced technologies.  

Modern technologies can allow your dentists to scan your teeth before the root canal procedure effectively. They can also use new tools to eliminate bacteria from your mouth. This helps promote your dental health.

Sometimes you might not know which dental hospital uses modern technologies before seeking services from them. But you can simplify the process by physically visiting their offices to ascertain whether they’ve modern tools.

Alternatively, you can visit a particular service provider’s website to determine whether you can find any information about the use of modern technologies. Apart from that, you can ask for referrals from people who’ve conducted root canal procedures in the recent past.   

Takeaway

Having a root canal procedure is the way to go if you want to deal with your decayed teeth. It involves repairing and saving the decayed tooth. As you’ve seen in this article, there are several reasons you need a root canal.

Seek the services of an experienced dentist, take note of your budget and essentials, and don’t delay your dental care. Your future self will thank you for your prompt action.

 Read Also:

• Why Should You Consider Whitening Your Teeth
• Stained Teeth & What You Can Do About It
• Signs to Know That Your Teeth Have Cavities
• Can You Sue A Dentist For Medical Malpractice?