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Root Canals

Changing Your View of Root Canals

Root canals are performed by dentists around the world to save teeth. If you are in need of a root canal you are in a large company of people.

More than 20 million root canals are performed each year in the United States.
It is estimated that over 100 million are performed worldwide.

The technical term for this dental procedure is endodontics. Endodontic procedures are performed by General Dentists and Endodontists.

No matter what you call it a root canal infection is not a pleasant experience. However the truth is that the horror stories are greatly exaggerated.

Endodontists and General Dentists have witnessed significant advances in the field of endodontics. In my 20+ years as one of those endodontists I've seen the success rate and predictability of root canals improve dramatically.

Since I've treated thousands of patients for a root canal infection I've heard many of the same questions. Here are just a few of the more common ones:

What are root canals ?

Maybe you asked your dentist, "What is a root canal?" but you didn't understand the answer. Many times when you're in a medical or dental office it is hard to concentrate on what the doctor is saying.

I hope I can help answer this important question of what is a root canal. Root canals are among the most misunderstood procedures in the fields of medicine and dentistry.

You’ve probably heard things like: “they pull out your root” or they “cut the nerve out of your tooth.” These are not accurate descriptions of root canals.

The root canal procedure involves the following steps:

Local anesthetic is administered. There are actually some circumstances when this is not necessary. But typically your tooth will be very numb prior to beginning the root canal treatment. Painful root canals are the exception and not the rule.

Patients will often ask if they will receive Novocain. Did you know that Novocain is one of the reasons that root canals are so notorious?

Novocain was the local anesthetic of choice many years ago. It did not provide profound anesthesia of teeth and the duration of effectiveness was very short.

Was the root canal procedure painful when Novocain was used? Yes, in many cases it was.

But today we have much more effective local anesthetics. These provide extremely profound anesthesia that can last for several hours.

A small opening is made in the tooth. This allows access to the dental pulp. This is the soft tissue on the inside of the tooth.

The root canal is cleaned. If you have a root canal infection this tissue has become diseased and needs to be removed. Small root canal instruments are placed in this small opening to accomplish the removal of this diseased pulp tissue.

The root canal space is filled. The space created by these small root canal instruments is then filled with a root canal filling material.

You need to ask your dentist what root canal filling will be used. You don’t want a paste root canal filling placed. The two most popular and accepted root canal fillings are gutta-percha and Resilon.

There is another question you should ask your dentist

BEFORE

you have your root canal.

I talk about this in Chapter 5 of

"The Relaxed Root Canal"

You simply MUST GET A YES ANSWER to this question. I'll give you my recommendation on what to do if you get a NO answer.

CLICK HERE for more information on how you can be reading The Relaxed Root Canal within minutes on your computer.

A crown or other permanent restoration is placed. The root canal crown combination is used on virtually all posterior teeth. Some front teeth will not require a crown after the root canal.

Now that you know how many root canals are done and how they are done you probably still have another important question:

Are Root Canals Successful?

The success rate is approximately 95%! This makes the root canal procedure an exceptionally successful and predictable dental procedure.

Even a serious root canal infection can usually be managed without any significant complication.

Even though there have been significant advancements in the treatment procedure, root canals still provoke a great deal of stress and anxiety.

I have written The Relaxed Root Canal to help the person who is nervous or still has questions about their root canal.

I answer more than 80 questions and provide practical tips on how to have a relaxing root canal experience.

You’ll learn things such as:
The one food item that causes more root canal problems than any other.
The reason you’ll need x-rays.
The problem with popcorn.
The cause of the root canal controversy.

For more information on how to have all your root canal questions answered and learn how to stay relaxed during your root canal treatment, CLICK HERE.