Endodontic – Root canal treatment
Root canal treatment is often associated with a painful and unpleasant procedure. At Dental Trips, we know it doesn’t have to be like that. Thanks to our qualified specialists and modern techniques, endodontic treatment is quick, thorough, painless, and most importantly, effective.
What is root canal treatment?
Endodontic treatment (also called root canal treatment) involves removing the diseased and irreversibly altered pulp from the inside of the tooth, cleaning and disinfecting the pulp cavity and root canals, and then filling them with permanent medicinal and stabilising material. The purpose of root canal treatment is to remove the source of infection and prevent it from recurring.
If in doubt
If you had prior treatment on a tooth or cavity and feel pain, it is wise to immediately consult a dentist specialising in endodontics. At Dental Trips our specialists will determine if a root canal treatment is necessary by studying x-rays of the problem tooth or cavity. By identifying and curing the infection early, you may be able to avoid more rigorous treatments such as a dental implant or bridge.
Painless root canal treatment
Inflammation of the pulp, which is the primary indication for endodontic (root canal) treatment, is manifested by severe pain, hypersensitivity to heat and cold, and increasing swelling. For these reasons, patients have a lot of concerns about undergoing treatment, especially if they had unpleasant dental experiences in the past.
Thanks to the state-of-the-art equipment and anesthesia techniques used at DENTestetica, root canal treatment is totally pain-free. Depending on the specific character of each case, the procedures performed by an endodontist may involve computer-controlled anesthesia, inhalation sedation with nitrous oxide (“laughing gas”) or sedoanalgesia monitored by an anaesthetist.
Treatment description
The process starts with a thorough cleaning of the infected or damaged areas of the tooth, in most cases under general anaesthetic.
Our specialist will then assess the pulp chamber and determine if an additional anaesthetic solution is required to be injected into the nerves to eliminate any pain, as the tooth can be very sensitive when partially necrotic and before the nerves have been removed.
Our specialist then removes all the infected tissue from the inner tooth, the nerve tissue from the root and clears the site in preparation for the filling. Our specialist then fills the root canal and seals the opening with a primary temporary filling.
On the next visit to the clinic once the initial treatment has time to settle, our specialist will remove the temporary filling and replace it with a suitable base and then generally cover it with a crown. This may seem a trivial operation but it is essential for the health and hygiene of your teeth and gums.
Unfortunately, our clinic gets a steady stream of patients who have had this treatment performed elsewhere by non specialised dentists and are suffering continued complications such as infections or inflammations in their teeth. Due to the intricacies involved in this treatment it may be down to those practitioners not having the necessary tools to execute the treatment, like a dental microscope which has 8 times the magnification to the ones used by general practitioners.
At Dental Trips we can guarantee that all our specialists have the most advanced equipment and expert knowledge to achieve amazing results.
How long does root canal treatment take?
Three-dimensional visualization of the treated tooth using computerised microtomography enables making a quick and accurate diagnosis of inflammations in teeth and jaw bones. Once we have a complete picture of the lesions, we are able to perform endodontic treatment often during a single appointment.
The duration and number of appointments depend on the severity of the inflammation and the potential difficulty in opening the root canal. More demanding cases, such as broken pieces of dental tools stuck inside the canal or old and very hard fillings, will probably require two visits, each lasting from 1.5 to 2 hours. In the primary treatment of a tooth with previously untreated root canal, one session lasting from 45 minutes to 1 hour is usually enough.
Microscopic endodontics – root canal treatment using a microscope
Thanks to the use of a microscope, the endodontist can see anatomical anomalies, artificial obstacles in the root canals and the effects of complications resulting from earlier treatments (perforations, resorption, etc.). At our DENTestetica clinic, we routinely use operational microscopes that allow us to achieve perfection in the technique of unblocking and filling root canals. Working on magnified images and with the use of the latest computer-controlled root canal preparation systems enables the successful treatment of most teeth previously qualified for extraction.