Root canal treatment

Last updated: August 27th, 2020

Root canal treatment, aka endodontics, is a dental procedure used to treat infection at the centre of a tooth.

Why root canal therapy?

Root canal treatment can save a tooth that might otherwise have to be removed completely. Besides it is not painful.

The root canal refers to the centre of a tooth. The root canal:

contains the dental pulp, the soft tissue at the centre of the tooth
extends from the crown of the tooth, the top part of the tooth that's visible in the mouth, to the end of the tooth's root

Root canal treatment is only required when dental X-rays show that the pulp is damaged by a bacterial infection.

The pulp will begin to die if it's infected by bacteria, allowing the bacteria to then multiply and spread.

Symptoms of root canal infection

Pulp infection symptoms include:

pain when eating or drinking hot or cold food and drink
pain when biting or chewing
a loose tooth

The worst part about pulp infection is that these symptoms fade away as the pulp dies! You think that your tooth has healed. But the infection has in fact spread through the root canal system!

This results in further symptoms such as:

pain when biting or chewing making a comeback
swelling of the gum near the affected tooth
facial swelling
the tooth becoming a darker colour
pus oozing from the affected tooth

Please do see a dentist if you develop any of the symptoms above.

How is root canal infection treated?

The bacteria need to be removed. How?

Tooth removal (extraction)

This is not recommended as it's better to keep as many of your natural teeth as possible.