Services & Care

A root canal procedure removes the source of a patient’s tooth pain or infection.

Root canal therapy is needed when the pulp or nerve of a tooth gets affected by decay or trauma. The blood within the tooth flows to the site of inflammation in order to aid the tooth, but results in pressure on the nerve endings and, typically, a painful response. Sometimes, however, a patient feels no pain from a tooth that has an infected or dead nerve. In this case, an abscess or drainage tract will develop that slowly affects the bone surrounding the root tip of a diseased tooth. We can diagnose these infections from routine dental radiographs (x-rays). Nerve (pulp) death can be a slow progression whereby decay may invade the pulp space and travel through the canal and settle at the end of the root.

Other events that may lead to infection or pain in a tooth nerve include heavy or deep decay, which may infect the nerve directly or result in a large filling that may not be tolerated well by the pulp. Constant trauma to the tooth or fracturing may also lead to nerve inflammation requiring root canal therapy.
Root canal therapy treatment involves cleansing the canal space by removing the infected or affected nerve, washing the space, and filling the space with an immobile, rubber-like material that helps seal the space.