New Haven Root Canal

Dr. David Sherberg is a dentist and has answered some of the common questions Bizymoms visitors have about Root Canal.


Q. What is root canal treatment?

A. Root canal treatment is basically a dental filling that fills all of the nooks and crannies that reside within the root(s) of a tooth.  When a tooth gets a deep enough cavity, these nooks and crannies, which are filled with nerves and blood vessels collectively known as the dental pulp, become inflamed and infected with bacteria.  Often this causes a toothache, but sometimes it does not.  Either way, this infected dental pulp needs to be cleansed of bacteria and filled with a dental filling that takes its place and helps seal these nooks crannies from future infection.

Q. What does treatment involve?

A. Treatment involves removing the initial cavity that caused this infection, then removing all the inflamed (or in some cases dead) dental pulp tissue with various dental files (small barbed needles) and chemical antiseptics.  Once the tooth is as free of the offending bacteria as possible, a dental filling is placed in all the inner spaces of the tooth that used to house the dental pulp.  This filling is typically made up of some combination of a liquid sealer (cement)m and a rubber filling known as gutta percha.

Q. What are the signs of needing endodontic treatment?

A. There are many signs that may mean you need a root canal, each corresponding to the amount of bacterial infection that the dentin pulp is dealing with.  Furthermore, some problems mimic root canal pain but actually require different treatment.  Only a dentist, after an accurate diagnosis, can determine if endodontic treatment is necessary.  In general, pain to cold, hot, chewing, or spontaneous/throbbing pain could be signs that you need a root canal.

Q. Are pain pills and antibiotics an acceptable substitute for root canal?

A. Absolutely not.  At best antibiotics will only reduce the signs/symptoms of a root canal while you are taking them, but the infection will come back in full force once the antibiotic regimen is completed.  Therefore, antibiotics can only be used as an adjunct to endodontic therapy.  Furthermore, pain pills will do nothing to solve the problem.  They will simply mask the pain.

Q. Are there alternative treatments for root canal?

A. If root canal therapy is necessary, the only alternative treatment is extraction (pulling) of the tooth.  Sometimes, based on the size of the cavity that caused the dental pulp infection, extraction of the tooth is actually a better treatment than a root canal.  

Q. How much will the procedure cost?

A. Procedures vary from a few hundred dollars to more than a thousand dollars based on the complexity of the root(s) of the tooth needing treatment.  In general, front teeth cost the least, your middle teeth (premolars or bicuspids) cost in the middle, and back teeth (your large, main chewing teeth) cost the most.

Q. Will the tooth need any special care or additional treatment?

A. YES!  And this care is equally important if not more important than root canal treatment.  When a root canal is completed, a temporary filling is placed in the tooth on top of the rubber filling I mentioned above.  More appointments will be necessary to replace this temporary filling with a permanent one, and more often than not a dental crown needs to be placed over that to complete the treatment.  If these additional procedures are not completed shortly after the root canal treatment, the tooth will either get reinfected with bacteria, will get a new cavity, fracture under the stresses of your normal bite, or a combination of the three.  Once this happens, the tooth may need to be extracted despite the root canal therapy being completed successfully.  

Q. How to contact Dr. Sherberg  if we have further questions?

A. You can e-mail me at northfamdental@gmail.com, visit our website at www.northfordfamilydental.com, or find us on facebook at www.facebook.com/northfordfamilydental.  I also write a dental blog that I update regularly which can be found at www.northfordfamilydentalsdailyfloss.blogspot.com