Bad Tooth

A bad tooth usually means you have a bad toothache. Most, but not all toothaches are the result of a diseased dental pulp.

Inflammation or infection of your tooth's pulp can cause bad toothache pain.

In my 20+ years as an endodontist (root canal specialist) I've seen many patients who had a bad tooth:

• Sometimes  they had a bad toothache and swelling.   
• Other times they had no symptoms but their dentist had discovered their bad tooth on a dental x-ray. 

Bad Tooth Means Bad Pulp

The dental pulp is the soft tissue on the inside of your tooth. It contains

• nerve tissue  
• blood vessels  
• specialized cells  

These specialized cells build the hard tooth structures when you are a child. Once your

tooth has completed its development the pulp doesn't serve a vital role in maintaining your tooth.

There are several possible causes for an inflamed pulp:

• dental decay   
• dental fillings   
• crowns   
• trauma   
• tooth cracks   

Once the pulp becomes inflamed it does have some healing capacity. However this is minimal because the pulp is encased within the hard tooth structure.

This means there is very little blood circulation to help inflammation   heal.

When the pulp heals the inflammation is what we call reversible pulp inflammation.

When it doesn't heal the inflammation is irreversible and means you are headed for a bad tooth and possibly a bad toothache.

The classic symptoms of irreversible inflammation are:

            1.  severe sensitivity to hot and/or cold

            2.  spontaneous pain (bad toothache pain that wakes you up at night or starts hurting during the day without you doing anything to provoke the pain)

            3.  pain on biting

This irreversible inflammation will eventually lead to an infected root canal. That means the dental pulp has basically become necrotic or dead tissue.

This condition may or may not lead to bad toothache pain.

Bad Tooth Means Two Options

Once the dental pulp is either infected or irreversibly inflamed it must be removed. There are only two options

that accomplish this:

• tooth extraction   

• root canal treatment  

Sometimes a bad tooth will be so bad that it cannot be saved and must be extracted. In these instances it is wise to replace the extracted tooth as soon as possible. This can usually be accomplished with a dental implant or bridge.

It is always best to save a bad tooth if at all possible. This means having a root canal treatment.

I've performed thousands of root canals so I know what those words mean to most people. That's why I wrote The Relaxed Root Canal. In this book I answer over 80 questions that are commonly asked about root canals.

I also give you some practical tips to help you have a relaxing root canal appointment.

If you're going to have a root canal there's a question you should ask your dentist FIRST! You simply must get a YES answer to this question.

I'll tell you what I think you should do if you get a NO answer. I tell you this question in Chapter 5. Just look for the big blue question mark.

For more information on The Relaxed Root Canal please CLICK HERE .

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