Does your tooth need a root canal treatment?
Root canal treatment means cleaning the inside of the tooth. The need to clean the inside of a tooth may emerge from inflamed or dead pulp tissue inside the tooth.
Following are some symptoms that may warrant the need for a root canal treatment:
- Constant pain: Persistent pain in a tooth may indicate infection in the tooth. Constant pain means a pain that occurs without any stimulation. It may wake you up while sleeping, watching tv.
- Sensitivity to cold or hot food: Difficulty drinking hot coffee or cold ice cream can indicate need for a root canal treatment. It’s the pain that occurs after hot or cold foods and lasts much longer than normal.
- Swelling: Swelling along the gums with pain. An infection may result into swelling and causes pain. Swelling enlarges very quickly. One must see a dentist as soon as possible.
- Discolored teeth without any pain: Sometimes, a front tooth may become discolored or turns pink or dark brown as compared to adjacent teeth. This is a unique situation. The tooth may have had undergone some insult earlier. Over the years; the nerve and blood vessels inside the tooth had decayed. The tooth may not cause any pain, may not be sensitive to hot or cold and only sign would be a discolored crown portion of the tooth.
- Large cavities: Cavities are very small in the beginning. As the time pass, these cavities get bigger and bigger. You may see decay deep inside the tooth and it may or may not be causing any pain and it may or may not be associated with swelling.
- Tooth Fracture: Sports like ice-hockey, basketball, boxing, baseball, bike riding, skating, etc. can cause damage to the teeth. A ball, puck or a fall can cause visible or hairline fractures in the teeth. There teeth may need root canal treatment.
- Car accidents: Air bags or banging the face to an object during a motor vehicle accident may cause irreversible damage to the nerve and blood vessels inside the tooth. One may need root canal treatment to control pain because of such an injury.
- Chipping/breaking a tooth while eating: Teeth with larger fillings are prone to fracture. Upper and lower teeth put pressure in order to grind food. Teeth with larger fillings sometime do not have strength to withstand pressure to grind nuts and other hard foods and they break. If the fracture is deep, tooth will need rct.
Is root canal treatment painful?
The answer to this question is no. Most of the time when a patient needs a root canal treatment, they are already in pain. Our priority is to get them out of pain. Occasionally, a patient may experience some pain during root canal treatment. A lot of research has been done and advancement have been made in this field of dentistry. Body's response to a disease or illness or infection could be different. Overall, majority of patients do not experience any pain.
Can root canal treatment be prevented?
Taking good care of teeth is the key. Prevention is the best medicine. Mostly, neglect and delaying dental care is the reason for root canal treatment . Keeping regular dental visits will help. Dentist will catch any disease process at an early stage and fix it. But once symptoms show; there is no return.
Lincoln Dental Centre Can Help
Have other questions about root canal treatment? We're happy to help. Feel free to contact us at (604) 552-9500 or by clicking here to get in touch with a Lincoln Dental Centre representative today. We look forward to hearing from you!