A root canal is a dentist’s last course of action to save your tooth. A healthy tooth’s root is filled with a soft tissue called pulp. When tooth decay becomes severe, or a tooth gets injured, it can cause an infection in the root chamber or pulp of a tooth.
There are some who believe that the easiest and cheapest solution to this problem is a tooth extraction. However, there are definite and irreversible consequences to this solution. When a tooth is removed and not replaced, the nearest teeth begin to shift from their normal position. Crooked and crowded teeth makes biting and chewing more difficult and are more likely to have gum disease because they are harder to keep clean.
In general, a root canal involves removing the infected pulp, cleaning the roots, and filling the canals and pulp chamber with material to stabilize the tooth. Similar to other dental visits, you should expect root canals to generally be completed in one visit, to be pain-free and to return to your regular lifestyle when leaving our office.