What to Expect During Your Root Canal

Root canal therapy plays a vital role in preventing tooth loss and helping you maintain your naturally beautiful smile. Yet many people are worried about what a root canal entails and what they should expect during their appointment.

At Dentist at Rock Creek in Cypress, Texas, KimCuc Vo, DDS, and Sandra Raouf, DDS, use the most advanced techniques and technology for root canal treatments, helping patients get the care they need without discomfort. If a root canal is in your future, here’s what you can expect.

The important role of root canals

Root canals eliminate decay and infection in the innermost part of your tooth called the pulp. The pulp contains the nerves and blood vessels that keep your tooth healthy. It extends from the center of your tooth to the tip of the tooth root, contained in narrow channels or canals.

We can treat most superficial cavities with fillings. But when decay or infection affect the pulp, you need a different treatment to remove the damaged pulp and restore the tooth. That's what a root canal does.

Once we remove the pulp, we seal and fill the tooth, then cover it with a crown to protect and strengthen it. By getting rid of the diseased part of the tooth, root canal treatment helps you avoid extraction and maintain your natural smile.

What you can expect during a root canal

We use local anesthetic to numb your tooth, but if you’re very nervous, we may recommend a sedative to help you relax.

Once your tooth is numb, we use special tools to access the pulp part of your tooth. Then we carefully remove the pulp and thoroughly clean the canals to remove any debris. Sometimes, we apply antibiotics directly to the canals to kill any remaining germs.

When the canals are clean, we seal them and fill them with a special material called gutta-percha. Finally, we place a temporary crown on the tooth to protect it while the lab we use makes your permanent crown.

About a week or so later, you come back in so we can replace the temporary crown with your permanent crown. The crown is tinted to match your neighboring teeth, so it blends in beautifully. And that’s it.

Maintain your natural smile

Root canal treatment saves more than 15 million teeth every year in the United States, and it can save yours, too. To learn more about root canal treatment, call our Cypress, Texas, office or book an appointment online with our team at Dentist at Rock Creek today.