Root canal treatment. These three words sometimes make people shudder with fear. You may wonder if the procedure will hurt, or even why you need it performed. But you don’t need to fear root canal treatment. Learn a little more about it here.

Causes

You need root canal treatment if the soft pulp tissue inside your tooth becomes inflamed or diseased. This happens when bacteria slip into the tooth through cracks caused by decay, repeated dental procedures, or a fractured tooth. The infected pulp can damage the rest of the tooth, the jaw bone, or even create a pus-filled pocket called an abscess.

Symptoms

Your dentist can determine if the pulp tissue is inflamed. Here are a few of the symptoms you may show.

• Toothache
• Tooth sensitivity to temperature
• A hole in the tooth
• Swelling to the gums, face, or neck

Treatment

Root canal treatment tries to save the tooth from being extracted. Because of modern dentistry, it can be virtually painless. Root canal treatments usually involve the following process.

• The tooth is numbed with an anesthetic.
• An opening is drilled into the tooth.
• The pulp tissue is removed and the interior of the tooth is cleaned.
• The inside of the tooth is filled with a rubber, sealer paste and a dental filling.
• The tooth is capped with a dental crown.