I Would Rather Have a Root Canal!

We hear this every day in the media and in our lives with people comparing their current situation to “having a root canal”. Well root canal procedure (RCT) has been improved greatly over the years and now it can be as easy as a filling. Here are some common questions asked:

Is this going to hurt?

Every patient asked this question in some form or fashion. The answer is 99% of the time no. The amount of pain that you will experience is usually dependent on how bad the tooth or infection are before the procedure. If you come in to the office before the pain gets to a level 10 then typically we can perform the RCT with very little or NO discomfort. If the infection has gotten out of control then typically some antibiotics will help reduce it to a manageable level. The other reason RCT is more comfortable in 2016 is that we have improved anesthetics or “Novocain”. While “Novocain” has not been widely used in many years the anesthetics today are very effective at getting an area numb that 20-30 years ago was impossible.

How long will it take?

This answer can vary from doctor to doctor but typically at a specialist’s office (called an ENDODONTIST) we are able to perform the RCT in under an hour. There are more complex cases of course but a typical RCT can be done in less than one hour. This is because of the advanced and improved equipment used today. We have digital X-rays, Microscopes to see very small canals, and also anesthetic that works better and faster, see above.

What happens when I have a dead tooth? Lots of articles and media say this is a bad because of the bacteria that can leak into my body and even cause cancer.

There have been no official studies to qualify this statement. Typically these are only observations. Like that out of a group of cancer patients a certain percentage had RCT. So they mistakenly assume that is the reason. When in reality this is the percentage in that population that has RCT. Another way to look at this is like this: your tooth needs to be “alive” only during your adolescence. After the tooth has formed and you reach adult hood the tooth “nerve” or pulp does not have a purpose. This is the reason we are able to remove the nerve or the pulp and keep the tooth to function for chewing etc.

What causes RCT?

Ultimately this answer is bacteria. Bacteria enters the tooth usually by decay but also other routes like trauma in the form of an accident or even dental work. This bacteria gets in the tooth and cannot be “handled” by the pulp anymore so the pulp starts to die. This is when the tooth becomes painful. You can take antibiotics to curb this pain but it will not correct or heal the problem. This is why extraction of the tooth or saving the tooth with RCT are the only options to solve this problem.