Root Canals
Hearing the words “root canal” may strike fear in your heart. This is something that we understand at Cornelius Dental Clinic. This shouldn’t be the case, however. We believe that if you know what to expect during this procedure, you’ll feel more at ease if you need to have this procedure performed in your mouth.
How A Root Canal Is Done
Having a root canal may require as many as three visits to our office. The exact number of visits depends on how difficult your canal system is, how many canals need to be cleaned, and how curved your roots are. If any of these areas are infected, it’s possible that you may need to schedule additional visits.
Each of your visits to our office will last for about 90 minutes. We’ll give you some local anesthesia when you first sit down in our chair. This will make this part of your mouth numb. Once you’re numb, we’ll hang a microscope over your mouth and use root canal files to remove any decayed nerve tissue, bacteria, the pulp (this is the soft inner part of your tooth where nerves, connective tissues, and blood vessels are located), and related debris from the tooth itself.
What To Expect After Getting A Root Canal
We suggest root canals when you have diseased tissue inside your tooth. This is done in hopes of restoring the rest of your tooth. The good news is that before this entire process begins, we’ll give you anesthetic, so you won’t feel anything more than what you’d feel if we were filling your tooth. You’ll also be saved from experiencing any pain that typically comes with a fractured or decaying tooth, but you will have some mild pain for a few days after the procedure is done.
Any pain outside of this isn’t normal, so make sure you bring it to our attention. During this time, it’s important for you to only eat soft foods (e.g. Eggs, pudding, yogurt, applesauce, smoothies, milkshakes, ice cream, bananas, peaches, mangoes). It’s important to avoid eating anything hard, crunchy, or chewy because you could damage your tooth or cause an infection – both of which would negatively impact your root canal’s success. After your root canal, you should also make sure to brush, floss and rinse your mouth with mouthwash as we’ll instruct you to do so.
Results Of Not Getting A Root Canal
Don’t try to avoid getting a root canal as this will cause the infection that’s located in your tooth to spread to the surrounding areas and tissues in your mouth. When this happens, you’ll develop a painful infection that will cause your mouth to swell up. Having untreated, the infected pulp inside your tooth can also cause other serious implications. So, if you’re told that you need a root canal, take this information seriously and contact Cornelius Dental Clinic at (971) 317-9323 right away. Remember, this isn’t something you should fear coming to our office to have done. Instead, it’s meant to improve your oral health.