About Root Canal Therapy
Root Canal (Endodontic) Treatment is one of the most common dental procedures performed by a trained general dentist or a specialist called Endodontist. The field of dentistry that deals with the internal tissues of the teeth is known as Endodontics. Looking at the anatomy, teeth are held in the jaw by their roots. Inside each tooth is the “pulp" or "nerve” which supplies nourishment and sensation to the tooth. Root canals are very small, thin canals that branch off from the pulp chamber down to the tip of the root. A tooth has at least one but no more than four root canals. When the pulp or root canal is diseased or injured, it “dies”. If you don’t remove the dead tissues your tooth gets infected and you could lose it in extraction.

In a situation when the tooth is abscessed, there forms a pus-filled sac at the root of a tooth, causing pain and swelling. The most frequent cause of pulp death is a cracked tooth or a deep cavity. Bacteria can attack your tooth through a weak filling, a cavity, or a crack. Your pulp becomes infected as bacteria reach the pulp. Ultimately, the bacteria could destroy the pulp. This may lead to infection of the bone as the bacteria escapes through the root openings. An abscess can also cause damage to the bone around the teeth. Without treatment, you are looking at tooth extraction.

The common symptoms most evident of an endodontic disease include:
• One feels tooth sensitivity to hot and cold liquids.
• One develops tooth sensitivity to sweets.
• There is pain to biting pressure.
• One feels sudden pain in tooth even when not eating.
• There is constant or intermittent toothache.
• Suddenly you face severe tooth pain.
• Throbbing tooth pain.
• Swelling and pain around tooth.

Root Canals Procedure
In the presence of one of more of these symptoms, a wise decision would be visit your dentist or Endodontist because you might need root canal disease or have a different dental problem. Some of these symptoms may also be attributable to decay, defective fillings, periodontal diseases, cracked teeth, poor oral hygiene, attrition due to bruxism, or orthodontic problems like underbite or bad bite. On other occasions, the symptoms may even be caused by disorders that are not related to the teeth. A detailed clinical diagnosis and X-ray inspection with apical setting of each tooth to be endodontically treated is done.

After the pulp has been removed in the normal course of root canal therapy, a temporary filling is added into the crown cavity to cover the tooth between your dentist visits. Generally, local anesthesia is given so that the patient will be comfortable during treatment. For the over sensitive patients, different forms of sedation dentistry can be followed. If your case has been that of much infection, your tooth may be left open for a few days for the infection to drain. In addition to the draining, you will also will be given medicine to help control infection that may have spread past the tooth.

Root Canal Treatment has a long term benefit of your tooth being saved. There may not be the need to extract the tooth in the future. You are saving your tooth as well as money because if the tooth is extracted then you will need to replace it with either a dental bridge or a dental implant, both of which will cost you more than the Root Canal (Endodontic) Therapy. However, it also ironically true that many times endodontically treated teeth very become brittle with time after treatment. This situation necessitates of dental crown to effectively rebuild these teeth, as inlay/onlay treatment is not effective. If the tooth is crowned, a separate procedure called a post and core is often needed to build up the tooth. A small post is cemented in the tooth and a core of filling material is built up around this post.

Molar Root Canals
The root canal of molars is considered a bit difficult area for dentists and patients alike. A crown needs to be placed on the molar almost immediately after root canal therapy, as molars tend to dry out fast and become brittle. In such a situation, molars are more prunes to crack due to biting on hard food. It may be looked at from the angle that if the encircled molar tissues become infected, pain will not only emanate from the molar but also around the tooth itself. The course of treatment in such a case will depend on how bad the crack in the molar is. If the crack stretches down to the root, there is a good chance the tooth will need to be removed. If the crack does not extend itself down to the root, the tooth can be saved by extending the length of the crown and placing a crown cap on top the area.

Latest in Root Canals
The technological advancement has brought Root canal preparation with rotary nickel titanium instruments to increasing interest during the last decade. Several different designs have entered the market with variable results. Today, a great number of dental offices use the latest in Nickel-titanium rotary instruments to carry out root canal treatment which minimizes the pain as well as time of the procedure.

The uses of Lasers in dentistry have also been coming on strong and it is believe they hold great promise as equipment and applications evolve. Lasers shoot out a beam of light in a straight line, and cannot easily negotiate or follow the tortuous curves and bends of the nerve canal. It may not reach very far beyond the main nerve canal inner surface. Lately however, many dental clinic hospitals have been doing laser root canal treatment to reasonable success.

The modern way of doing root canals is less painful. But most root canal therapy patients have reported that the first couple of days subsequent of root canal treatment are that the tooth still feels tender. Time is the best way to eliminate all the pain, but it always differs from patient to patient. There are also some other things like using over-the-counter anti-inflammatory analgesics. Medications may be used to sterilize the core of the tooth to avoid the spread of infection. Medicines like Ibuprofen, Advil, and Motrin can be effective alternatives to minimize the pain after root canal treatment. However, the dentist of India dental clinics may prescribe the right medicine to aid healing in the course of your dental treatment in India.

After Endodontic Treatment
If is often the case that after root canal treatment, or endodontic surgery or apicoectomy has been performed, teeth have a tendency to discolor after some time and turn to darker shades of brown or grey caused by decomposition. This leads to a loss of aesthetics in the anterior region. Internal bleaching procedure is the cure for this problem, often performed by an Endodontist.