Endodontic or Root Canal treatment is necessary when the dental pulp (the nerve) becomes inflamed or infected because of caries, dental treatment performed repeatedly on the tooth or trauma.
When the dental pulp is damaged, patients will experience: persistent pain, sensitivity in the tooth to cold or hot, swelling, discolouration in the tooth, lymph nodes swelling.
Root Canal treatment means draining and removing the nerve, followed by shaping, cleaning, filling and sealing of the canals.
Afterwards, the placement of a crown is performed to protect the tooth. If much of a tooth is lost, a post and core may be needed to restore it. A post is an anchor bonded inside of the canals of the tooth after the root canal procedure was completed.
Then the core(made of bonded filling or metal) is placed on top of the post so that a crown can be placed restoring the tooth. Failure to do a root canal may result in an abscess or a soft jaw bone around the roots of the tooth.
Here at Lawrence Park Dentistry we use a state of the art microscope to be able to visualize the canals, crack or fracture lines inside the tooth structure.