What the heck is a root canal?

So...what in the world is a root canal? You wouldn’t really know unless you’ve gotten one done or maybe a few. Additionally, the procedure is much more common among older patients but that doesn’t mean younger patients are immune. The procedure can be required at any age (given that you have tooth decay deep enough) and what causes tooth decay? Not brushing well and lots of refined carbs/sugars! If you already know what a root canal is, skip this blog post and stay tuned for next week’s! We’ll be talking about the most popular cosmetic dental procedures.

Anyhoo, back to root canals. A root canal is an endodontic procedure (“endo” = Greek for inside and “odont” = Greek for teeth). Btw, knowing some Greek prefixes is TOTALLY useful for understanding new words, especially in the scientific field!

Again, back to our topic...this endodontic procedure is often necessary when the “pulp,” which is the inner layer of the tooth that has blood vessels, nerves, and connective tissue becomes infected or inflamed due to deep decay or even injury (sometimes there are no visible cracks in the tooth but if the injury is severe enough it can damage this pulp area). The pulp (inner) area of the tooth is especially important in developing teeth as the blood vessels provide the nutrients it needs to grow. Once the tooth is completely developed, the pulp is not necessary which makes it okay for the damaged pulp to be removed and filled during a root canal.

If your dentist tells you that a root canal is needed, GET IT DONE! The damage to the pulp can lead to an abscess or pain due to lack of treatment. What’s an abscess? Something you never want. It’s pretty gross. It is a localized collection of pus due to bacterial infection and is quite painful and annoying (if it’s large enough it will be visible as it can form a bump of the side of your face). It also smells pretty gnarly. Even if there is no abscess, inflammation of the pulp will lead to tooth sensitivity and pain.

So what’s the actual root canal procedure? To start off, the dentist or endodontist will apply a local anesthetic (numb the area). Then he or she basically drills a hole (cavity) into the infected tooth until the root canal opening is reached. From there, he or she will extract the nerve tissue using dental tools. Afterwards, the shaping process of the root canal occurs so that it can be filled. Before filling, the dentist or endodontist may apply additional treatment or more local anesthetic to prevent the bacterial infection from spreading and reduce pain, respectively. If you don’t have a sensitive stomach, check out this detailed video below:

Once all the above has been completed and the root canal has been filled (with a biocompatible filling of course), a protective crown is placed on the tooth. Other restorative measures may be taken as well depending on type of damage, shape of tooth, and individual needs, etc. Now you’ve accumulated some dental health knowledge and even some Greek. Go impress your friends.