Root Canal Treatment in Catford

Root canal treatment doesn’t need to hurt or be scary  and with Hillview Dental Centre dentist’s gentle touch, you may not even be aware of what is being done.

A tooth infection usually starts with deep decay, as is illustrated in the diagram on the right.

Once the decay gets into the pulp of the tooth, shown as the orange-colour tissue deep inside the tooth, it carries bacteria into the pulp and the pulp becomes infected.

Your body tries to fight this infection in the usual way, by bringing white blood cells and antibodies to the site of the infection. Ordinarily, this will cause the tissue to swell.

Inside a tooth, however, is a confined space and when this tissue tries to swell, instead it strangles itself and dies. This dead tissue then feeds infection into the bone that surrounds the apex of your tooth.

The diagram above illustrates this. The large cavity has involved the pulp of the tooth, causing the pulp to become infected, and it soon dies.

The red area at the tip of one of the roots is the abscess that has formed. This process usually causes a toothache at some point, but sometimes it doesn’t. Before the pulp dies, it usually causes heightened sensitivity in the tooth followed by an out-and-out toothache, which then goes away. Here is an x-ray showing a tooth with a completed root canal treatment. The pulp tissue inside the tooth has all been cleaned out, and has been filled with a root canal sealer material.

The root canal filling material threads down inside the tooth roots to their tip. Modern techniques make root canal treatments easier and faster than they used to be. Those who have received these treatments know that the scary stories about root canals are overblown.

In fact, if the tissue inside the tooth is dead, the tooth will have no feeling at all. In cases where the tissue isn’t dead, it can be numbed. While this takes care of the infection, the tooth is now fairly weakened and usually requires a dental crown to protect it against breaking It’s sad that some people are so afraid of this treatment that they choose to have a tooth extracted instead.

In our experience, a tooth extraction is the most traumatic of any dental treatment. In our view, whenever a tooth can be saved it is worthwhile to do that rather than remove it. If you have a toothache or suspect that you have an infected tooth, give us a call at 020 8698 5548. Our dentists will carefully examine your tooth and then recommend the most conservative treatment that will solve your problem.

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