Treatment commonly known as a “root canal” consists of removing the dental pulp – the living part of a tooth containing the nerve – from the tooth and leaving it dead. This technique is part of endodontics, or the aspect of dental care that focuses on conditions within the tooth.
Several circumstances may cause necrosis of the dental nerve and therefore require the tooth to be deadened:
In particular, root canal treatment can stop pain urgently more or less immediately during episodes of toothache.
The benefit of this “short-term” technique is the patient’s well-being. However, once it’s done, there’s no going back.
In the long term, it causes the mechanical stability of dental tissue to weaken significantly and may cause intrinsic discolouration of the tooth. Furthermore, as the tooth is no longer alive, this means it is no longer capable of transmitting the sensation of pain – meaning it will no longer be able to alert you to the development of a cavity. In dentistry, as in general medicine, pain plays a key role in letting us know when something is up.
For dead teeth, only regular check-ups can ensure a cavity will not be able to destroy a large part of the tooth undetected.
When this does happen, it’s more difficult and more expensive to repair. The complexity of root treatments essentially depends on two factors: