Root Canal Therapy

For a number of possible reasons, teeth nerves sometimes die. This will ultimately result in abscess formation around the root of the tooth which at times can be a very painful emergency.

Once a nerve dies and an abscess develops, there are only 2 options available: Root Canal Therapy or Extraction of the tooth.

While it may seem at first that removing the tooth may be the cheaper option, in fact it may in the long term become a far more costly option.

Once a tooth is lost, the balance of forces holding the teeth in a stable position is lost and tooth movement in adjacent and opposing teeth invariably occurs. This is a slow process which takes place over many years, but the ultimate result is problems with food packing between shifting teeth and subsequent gum infections and decay. There is also the potential for bite problems resulting in temporomandibular joint pain or headaches.

Often replacing a missing tooth is far more costly than Root Canal Therapy.

Root fillings are not an absolute guarantee that no further problems will occur. Statistically the tooth has about a 90% chance of no further infection or pain in the following 10 years. There is no 100% guarantee of success in this type of therapy but often it is is highly preferable to simply having the tooth removed from the outset.

Back teeth that have Root Canal Therapy almost always subsequently need a full crown as non-vital (dead) teeth are more brittle and usually fracture deeply obliquely below the gum if they break.

Most Root Canal treatments are completed in 1 to 2 visits.

Root Canal procedures are conducted in our office but there may be occasions when we will advise having your Root Canal done by a Specialist Endodontist. This may involve travelling a distance to have the work done.