Root Canal Therapy at The Urban Dentist | Richmond, B.C.

Root Canal Therapy in Richmond, B.C.

Save Your Tooth From Extraction

If you are experiencing intense, throbbing toothache, you may require a root canal. When a tooth has either a deep cavity or a crack through its nerve, the nerve of the tooth can start to get sick. The body’s response to injury is to swell. Inside every live tooth, there is soft tissue that is composed of a nerve and blood supply. When the nerve is severely injured, the soft tissue begins to swell. But, because it is within the confines of the tooth, it cannot expand. Instead, pressure builds up within the tooth and produces pain. Overtime, the pressure will kill the nerve of the tooth. The pain may go away momentarily; however, the tooth will be at risk of developing a painful infection at the root tip.

For these reasons, a root canal is prescribed in order to save the tooth. At the Urban Dentist we will ensure that the area is numb before commencing the procedure. If the nerve is infected, complete anesthesia may be more difficult to achieve as the infection counteracts the effect of the anesthetic. At this point, we will recommend that the patient take the appropriate antibiotics to reduce the infection prior to completing the root canal. Once the anesthesia is successful, we will carefully use a series of files to clean out the debris with the tooth’s nerve canals. Once they have been properly cleaned and disinfected, we will use a rubber material called gutta percha to seal the tooth’s canal system so that bacteria cannot travel into the root system to re-infect the area.

Once the root canal is completed at our office, we will place a temporary filling to cover the tooth. Root canal treated molar and premolars should have crowns placed over them to protect the tooth from fracturing and splitting.