We at Beachwood Family Dental offer several options to help you preserve your natural teeth. When a tooth becomes infected, an treatment option to save the tooth is a root canal treatment. A “root canal” is the part of the tooth on the inside of its root(s) where nerves and blood vessels travel, and the “pulp” of a tooth is the living tissue within the crown of the tooth, which is where infection often starts if bacteria from a cavity has infiltrated the tissue.

Root canal treatment, or “RCT”, is a therapy that focuses on healing and restoring damaged or infected tooth pulps. This treatment is usually offered for patients who have severe toothaches caused by inflamed or infected tissue. Infected root pulp is typically the result of dental decay that reaches past the outer protective layers of the tooth and causes the pulp to become irritated or destroyed by harmful bacteria.

The aim of root canal therapy is to save the life of the tooth. If the infection is allowed to go untreated, the infection may spread to other teeth or in to other parts of our body. The patient may experience painful facial swelling, pain while eating, and/or pain while trying to sleep

The RCT itself is a simple procedure. After ensuring that the patient is fully numb, the dentist will remove infected tissues from the tooth and then apply medication to prevent further infection and encourage healing. The tooth will then be capped and sealed with a dental crown to preserve the integrity of the tooth for a comfortable and functional fit.

If you would like more details about root canal treatments, give our office a call and schedule a consultation with our team. We look forward to your visit!