Endodontics is the practice of intervening when serious tooth pain consumes all of your attention. While dentists help you keep your teeth in their best shape, our highly trained endodontist (a next-level dental specialist) can step in and effectively fix the tissues inside the problem tooth. As members of the American Association of Endodontists (AAE), our job is to treat your teeth’s roots, pulp, and pain. If you have a severe toothache from an abscess or infection, we are the team to contact.
What Endodontists Do
As endodontists, our standard of care is on your tooth’s root and pulp. While often solving the problem involves providing a root canal treatment, there are other treatments we can use to save your tooth. We specialize in treating complex tooth issues impacting the inner part of your tooth, the tooth pulp, or dental pulp, which includes the soft tissues of the tooth roots. According to the AAE, dentists often refer nearly half of their root canal cases to endodontists like us!
So let’s say you have experienced some sort of facial or oral trauma, have a serious swelling around one or more teeth, have swollen lymph nodes, or require endodontic surgical treatment such as an apicoectomy. In these cases, your dentist will likely send you our way.
An apicoectomy is a treatment where we remove the tip of the damaged tooth root and any severely inflamed root tissue to stop the infection.
What’s Inside Your Teeth?
To help you visualize the tooth pulp, think of the combination of a tooth’s nerves, blood vessels, and other connective tissues that reside deep inside every healthy tooth. This dental pulp is located deep within the tooth’s enamel and cementum, so you can’t see it. This pulp is what helps your teeth grow when your teeth are maturing. The problem arises when a tooth is severely decayed, whether from injury or poor oral hygiene care, and “pulpitis” develops. This inflammation or infected tooth pulp can cause severe toothache. If this condition is not treated, you can develop serious health conditions requiring urgent care if the infection spreads to the neck, head, or jaw, or you end up with sepsis where your immune system overreacts to the untreated blood infection from your toothache.
When Root Canal Therapy Is the Answer
With a root canal, we take out the infected or pulp (tooth nerve) from the center of your tooth (after isolating it with a dam). We clean the cracks and canals completely, so we can reshape the canal using unique instruments and then fill the area with a strong, biocompatible filling material. It can also be covered with a dental filling or crown to close the incision.
You might need a root canal if you experience any of the following issues in your mouth:
- An injury to a tooth or painful sensitivity to hot and cold temperatures
- A chipped, broken or decayed tooth
- Swelling or extreme tenderness around the aching tooth from infection
- Having had multiple dental procedures on a tooth
We will make sure you are made comfortable during your treatment with the help of dental sedation like anesthesia. When you come to us for treatment, we will assess your condition to determine the necessary treatment so you receive the best care possible.
Toothache? Call Today!
Moving forward, you will want to take good care of your teeth and gums with daily preventative care as outlined by your dental team. Remember, you want to stay on top of harmful oral bacteria to prevent gum disease and tooth decay. Please don’t ignore a toothache as it can adversely affect your mouth and body. Please call if you have any concerns about a painful tooth in your smile!
