ROOT CANAL

The pulp is soft tissue inside your tooth that contains nerves, blood vessels and provides nourishment for your tooth. It can become infected if you have a deep cavity, a cracked or fractured tooth or injury to the tooth (even if there’s not a visible crack or chip)

If untreated, the tissues around the root of your tooth can become infected. When this happens, you will often feel pain and swelling and an abscess may form inside the tooth and/or in the bone around the end of the root of the tooth. An infection can also put you at risk of losing your tooth completely because bacteria can damage the bone that keeps your tooth connected to your jaw.

Root Canal Therapy allows us to save your tooth . The process involves creating an opening in the crown of your tooth. The pulp in the ‘root canal’ is completely removed and the ‘canal’ is cleaned out, shaped and smoothed. Any infection (abscess) is treated and the bacteria that cause it are cleaned out.

The canal area, once infection free is filled and sealed. As the tooth will no longer be receiving vital nutrients it will be more brittle than surrounding teeth. For this reason we create a Crown or Cap to strengthen and protect your tooth’s chewing surface, especially if it was one of your back teeth. Once ready the Crown is cemented in place and your tooth rather than an artificial replacement keeps its place in your smile.

You may notice that the treated tooth will often darken or discolour once the pulp is removed. If the treatment was on one of your front teeth our whitening procedure can brighten up that tooth along with the rest of your smile.