Teeth can die for many reasons the most common is decay reaching the nerve or pulp tissue , it can be accidents football, rugby and swimming all can lead to trauma to the teeth and sometimes the teeth die years later. Which is why people should be wearing Mouthguards in contact sports they are a lot cheaper than complex dentistry. The death of the pulp can be acute with sever throbbing pain or go silently both ways can lead to abcess formation a swollen face and illness.PAtients generally are calling for an Emergency appointment hopefully before getting ill.
The choice is either root canal treatment which removes the dead pulp from the mouth but keeps the tooth in the mouth in function or extraction which removes the tooth with the pulp from the mouth creating a gap in the smile and a problem of what to do with the gap!
At CM Dental ltd we try to advise which is the best course for the individual.
The number of roots and the canals shape varies within the individual and the tooth isnt a circle but a very curvey object,which sometimes makes it tricky for the dentist. The patient is numbed and it becomes usually a very boring visit as we place rubber dam and generally the patient cant talk. The purpose of the dam is to keep the patients spit with its diverse bacterial population out of the canal system while the walls of the canal are cleaned and decontaminated by the files and the chemicals. The dam also keeps the patient away from the chemicals.
It usually take two visits to carry out the treatment the second appointment is furher disinfection and sealing the canal up with an inert cement and filling material usually rubber.
For a molar tooth which are subject to higher bitting loads need a crown now of high strength porcalain which together with the root canal treatment hopefully keep lookig good in function for 20-25 years, far better thaqn a gap ! the advice is root canal treat first before considering dental implants unless its a upper lateral incisor when the crown may not have enough strength to cope .
Usually with anteriors and premolars a simple tooth coloured filling will work fine.
Root canal treatment generally is pain free relieves the pain the patient was in and keeps the tooth in function reduces problems and costs over what to do with the gap in the smile.https://cmdental.co.nz/services/emergency-root-canal/
