Although pain killers are a very common way to combat toothache, they are not necessarily the best way. They don’t treat the cause – cavities that have destroyed the tooth structure to expose the pulp chamber of the tooth. Ignoring a cavity for long could turn into severe infection leaving you with no choice but to get your teeth removed

Treatment

Root canal treatment is essentially a dental procedure to save teeth which would otherwise need to be extracted. This treatment involves the removal of the tooth's damaged pulp - a small, thread-like tissue in the center of the tooth. Once the tooth's nerve tissue or pulp is damaged, it ceases to function. This cuts off blood supply to the tooth and the only course of treatment in such a case is to remove the damaged nerve or pulp and seal off the tooth, so that extraction can be avoided.

Causes

Although the reasons can be varied, a cracked tooth, deep cavity or tooth injury, are the most common causes for pulp damage. A root canal treatment needs to be done as soon as possible in order to avoid severe infection, which can harm the bone surrounding the root of the tooth apart from infecting surrounding areas. If the infected pulpal tissue is left untreated, pus can build up at the tip of the root in the jawbone, forming a tooth or a jaw abscess.

Procedure

The most important step before beginning the treatment is proper clinical diagnosis based on subjective as well as objective symptoms. During the root canal treatment, a dentist cleans up the pulp chamber and enlarges the canal. Once the pulpal tissue is removed, the remaining area is disinfected, medicated and obturated – filled with dental-filling. This procedure seals off the canal, preventing the spread of infection to other teeth.

Post Procedure

Because a root canal treatment removes the pulp from inside the tooth, the tooth becomes more brittle and may break more easily if it is not covered with a crown or cap. This is why dentists always advise to get the tooth capped after a root canal treatment.

Extraction v/s RCT

Though many people choose tooth extraction to root canal treatment, dentists the world over are of the opinion that root canal treatment is a much better option as compared to pulling out the tooth.