Root Canal Therapy

The teeth that need this are the ones where bacteria have reached the nerve inside, through deep decay, a crack, or an injury. Left alone, that spreads into the bone at the tip of the root. Treating it here means numbing the tooth, clearing the canals, sealing them, and protecting what is left, and we tell you which of those steps your tooth needs before you agree to any of it.

A tooth without its pulp still works. It no longer feels cold, and it needs the same daily cleaning and checkups as everything else in your mouth. Losing the pulp is not the same as losing the tooth.

Symptoms point us toward a tooth, but they don't settle it. Only an exam and imaging show whether the pulp is inflamed and likely to recover, or dead and not going to. A deep filling can settle down. A dead pulp can't. These are the signs worth calling about.

Anesthetic numbs the tooth before anything starts, and it's tested to confirm it's numb before we begin. What you notice from there is pressure, vibration, and the time it takes. Plan on an hour or two in the chair for most teeth. We tell you which stage we are on as we go, because not knowing how much is left is most of what makes the chair hard.

That isn't the same as feeling nothing. If you have struggled to get numb at a dentist before, tell us when you book rather than in the chair, because it changes how we plan the anesthetic for your appointment. Tell us if you feel anything sharp. We'd rather stop and add more than have you gripping the chair.

Your mouth is held open and a rubber dam frame sits over the tooth, so you cannot talk once we start and we agree on a hand signal first. We work under a dental microscope, because canals are narrow, they curve, and the number of them differs from tooth to tooth. If you need to swallow, stretch, or stop for a minute, that signal is enough, and the gap between cleaning the canals and sealing them is the easiest place to take a break.

Many root canals are finished in a single visit. More complex teeth take longer and some need two appointments, so ask when you book how long to plan for. Afterward, mild soreness for a few days is normal. Expect the tooth to feel tender to bite on for a while, because the ligament around the root has been irritated. Eat on the other side until it settles. A back tooth is usually protected with a crown, and we'll tell you where that sits in your sequence.

Saving your natural tooth is usually preferable. A natural tooth maintains your bite and your jawbone better than most replacements, and a root canal exists to preserve it. But there are teeth we wouldn't treat this way, and we'll say so when that's what we see.

The reasoning is short, and the part of it we can check in advance is whether enough sound tooth will be left to hold a crown, which imaging settles before we start rather than halfway through. Replacing a tooth costs more than treating one and nothing replaces a natural root completely, so the bar for extraction is high. It's still the right answer sometimes, and you'll hear that before the appointment rather than during it.

A root canal also isn't the answer to every ache. Sensitivity that fades as soon as the cold goes, a filling that's settling after recent work, or pain coming from the gum rather than the tooth each need something different. Sorting that out is what the testing at your exam is for, and it happens at that appointment rather than a separate one, with the X-ray on the screen while we go through what it shows. If your tooth can't be saved, we explain why and go over the options for replacing it.

Some patients find that a painful tooth goes quiet on its own. That's the version that catches people out. The bacteria stay where they are. If a tooth of yours went quiet like that, say which one when you book, because a tooth that no longer reacts to cold is easy to pass over unless somebody flags it.

The practical difference is which appointment you end up in. Caught at this stage, the tooth is usually still a root canal and a crown. Caught later, it is an extraction and then a decision about replacing it. That is why we follow up on a tooth you mentioned once and then stopped mentioning.

Facial swelling with a fever is an emergency rather than a wait. For severe swelling, or any trouble breathing or swallowing, go to the nearest emergency room instead of waiting for an appointment.

You get a written plan and a cost estimate before we start, and your benefits are verified first if you have dental insurance. If you're in pain, call (407) 774-4433 and we'll do our best to see you promptly. We treat patients from Altamonte Springs, Longwood, Winter Park, Maitland, and Casselberry.