When you have persistent pain in your tooth, there is a chance you have more than a cavity. A dental infection could not only cause major pain, but lead to tooth loss too. Fortunately, we can help! In today’s blog, your West Allis, WI, dentist talks about how we stop discomfort with a root canal procedure.
Pain and Dental Infection
When you have persistent pain in a tooth, this is likely due to the presence of advanced decay or even a dental infection. A tooth becomes infected when harmful oral bacteria reach the pulp, the nerve center of your tooth. For most, this happens as a result of an untreated cavity that will grow in severity with time, eventually reaching the pulp. But injury or teeth grinding could also be a factor. Without treatment, the infection could increase in severity until the pulp dies, effectively killing the tooth. Now, it could require extraction to prevent the spread of infection to other parts of your smile. But our team can offer treatment to stop the infection and halt discomfort, keeping your smile intact.
Preparing Your Smile
To begin, our team will take a close look at the tooth with a digital x-ray to assess the presence and severity of the infection. We can then plan the treatment in detail. We want to ensure your procedure is a comfortable one, so we can administer a local numbing agent to the tooth. If you have anxiety or other factors that make undergoing treatment difficult, we could offer dental sedation to help you enter a deep state of calm and relaxation, with little to no memory of the procedure! Your root canal should be a positive experience, one that leaves you with a comfortable smile and helps you avoid tooth loss.
The Root Canal Treatment
When your smile is ready, our team will open the tooth to access and remove the tissues from within. We then thoroughly clean the interior of the tooth and the root canals. Once we complete this step, our team will add a special restorative filling material known as gutta percha. Finally, we will cap the tooth with a dental crown, one custom-made to ensure it can handle daily bite forces and offer a balanced bite and a lifelike appearance. If you have any questions about how our team will treat infected teeth with a root canal, then contact our office today. Now is also a great time to schedule your first checkup and cleaning of 2025!
Ask Our Team About Treating Infected Teeth
We want to offer care that ensures comfort in your smile and prevents tooth loss. To schedule an appointment with Stubbs Family Dentistry in West Allis, WI, call our team today at 414-541-8250.
