Root canal treatment

When a large cavity in a tooth reaches the nerve chamber, or in some cases when a tooth breaks, root canal treatment may be required. In order to save the tooth the St Anne's Dental Practice team take great care to painlessly clean and fill infected tooth canals with the most up to date rotary systems, before adding a filling material to seal them.

Within every tooth is a nerve chamber and a blood supply in the root canal. In a healthy tooth, these nerves will be alive. Front teeth will normally have one root holding them in the jaw bone, but back teeth can have two, three or four.

If a large cavity in a tooth reaches the nerve chamber, or if a tooth breaks, bacteria can cause the nerves to die. The root canals can become infected and an abscess may form beneath the root(s) of the tooth, in the jawbone. Pain may occur at any time during this process, and the infection can spread.

Treatment is usually carried out over one or two visits to St Anne's Dental Practice. The purpose of the treatment is to remove the bacteria or dying tissue from inside the tooth and to clean and disinfect the root canals. This is achieved by making a small hole through the tooth into the nerve chamber, locating and measuring the root canals, then cleaning and widening them using fine instruments. Local anaesthetic is used throughout the procedure to avoid any discomfort.

To aid the instrumentation of these intricate channels to the tooth, magnification may be used and if possible, the tooth will usually be isolated to keep the area dry and clear.

Once clean, the canals are filled to seal them off from re-infection. In most cases, infections will start to heal at this point.

Most patients only experience mild discomfort following treatment, but it is common to experience none at all.