Root Canal Therapy near Winters

The phrase "root canal" carries an old reputation it no longer deserves. Modern root canal therapy is a comfortable, routine procedure that ends a toothache rather than causing one. Inside every tooth is a soft core of nerve and blood vessels called the pulp. When deep decay, a crack or an injury lets bacteria reach the pulp, it becomes inflamed and then infected, producing the throbbing, temperature-sensitive pain that brings most people to our door. Left untreated, the infection spreads into the bone, forms an abscess, and eventually costs you the tooth.

Root canal therapy removes the infected pulp, cleans and disinfects the narrow canals inside the roots, and seals them so bacteria cannot return. The tooth is numbed completely before we begin; most patients say the procedure felt no different from a filling and that their pain was gone by the next day. Because a tooth without its pulp becomes brittle, the final step is protecting it with a crown, which in our office can often be made the same day with CEREC.

Saving your natural tooth is almost always preferable to removing it. An extracted tooth needs to be replaced with an implant or bridge to prevent the shifting and bone loss that follow, and even the best replacement is not quite as good as the tooth you were born with. A root canal and crown typically cost less than an extraction and implant, and the tooth can serve you for many more years.

Dr. Lance Carter is a general dentist who performs root canals on teeth suited to treatment in a general practice. Endodontics is a recognized dental specialty, and some teeth, particularly molars with unusual anatomy, calcified canals, or a history of previous treatment, are best handled by an endodontist. When that is the case we will tell you at the diagnostic visit and coordinate the referral, then complete the crown here once the root canal is finished.