Root canal therapy is a great treatment for saving a tooth that is badly infected. You may need root canal therapy if you develop a persistent toothache or if it hurts whenever you bite down on a certain tooth. Other symptoms include noticing the gum around the painful tooth looks red or swollen and you might have a persistently unpleasant taste in your mouth.
These symptoms can all develop if a tooth has an untreated cavity or a leaky filling, or if you have lost part of a tooth, enabling bacteria to enter the very central part of the tooth called the pulp. This part of your tooth contains all the nerves and blood vessels and these extend right into the root canals in the tooth roots. Treatment will remove all the infected tissues, including those in the root canals so the tooth can be restored, usually with a crown to cover it up completely. Root canal therapy shouldn’t be any worse than having a filling as we will make sure you are kept comfortable and afterwards your tooth will be pain-free.
If you do have toothache, we strongly recommend you book an appointment with our dental practice as soon as possible so we can diagnose the problem. This is because root canal treatment is more successful when carried out sooner rather than later, as if left untreated the infection could develop into an abscess which is much more serious and which reduces our chances of saving your tooth.