What To Expect From Your Root Canal
The news that you need a root canal is not something that anyone wants to hear, but it is a necessity if you wish to preserve the health of your mouth and the surface of your natural tooth. Root canals have something of a stigma attached to them that they’re uncomfortable, daunting, and painful, but modern dentistry has turned these ideas into rumors and nothing more. A root canal is actually a fairly simple process, and one that will often cause a person to experience very little or no pain at all!
A root canal is needed when the pulp of the tooth becomes infected due to decay, and because the pulp isn’t necessary in an adult tooth, it can be removed in order to restore a natural tooth. When the pulp is removed, however, the tooth will become weak, and a crown will be necessary to restore the tooth’s shape and appearance as well as provide it with an extra shield of strength.
Before getting a root canal, a person will be sufficiently numbed so that they won’t feel a thing during the course of the process. This is typically the step that shows patients that their procedure won’t be a painful one as well, as they begin the procedure while feeling not much of anything at all. Depending on the number of roots a tooth may have, the root canal procedure can take anywhere from 30 minutes to a couple of hours. Once the pulp is removed, the tooth will be sufficiently sanitized, and sealed to allow infection to remain out!
After the tooth is sealed, a patient will then be fitted for their permanent crown, and often given a temporary crown to last them for the two or so weeks until their permanent crown is ready to be seated. The placing of the crown is a painless process, and one that even sometimes requires no numbing at all!
The only time you may feel pain when you receive a root canal procedure is after the root canal is finished, as the numbing solution will be wearing off and the stress of the procedure may begin to set in the mouth. For this, we at Community Dental Group often recommend taking an over the counter pain reliever such as acetaminophen or ibuprofen, as this will be enough to keep you comfortable.