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 Root Canal Treatment
How long will the restored tooth last?
Your restored tooth could last a lifetime, if you continue to care for your teeth and gums. However, regular checkups are necessary. As long as the root(s) of a treated tooth are nourished by the tissues around it, your tooth will remain healthy.
What Should One Expect After the Root Canal?
The root canal procedure should relieve the pain you feel. Until your root canal procedure is completely finished โ€“ that is to say, the permanent filling is in place and/or the crown is place, it's wise to minimize chewing on the tooth under repair. This step will help avoid recontamination of the interior of the tooth and also may prevent a fragile tooth from breaking before the tooth can be fully restored. For the first few days following the completion of treatment, the tooth may feel sensitive due to natural tissue inflammation, especially if there was pain or infection before the procedure. This sensitivity or discomfort usually can be controlled with over-the-counter analgesics such as paracetamol, ibuprofen or naproxen. Most patients can return to their normal activities the next day.
As far as oral health care is concerned, brush and floss as you regularly would and see your dentist at normally scheduled intervals. Because the final step of the root canal procedure is application of a restoration such as a crown or a filling, it will not be obvious to onlookers that a root canal was performed. Root canal treatment is highly successful; the procedure has more than a 95% success rate. Many teeth fixed with a root canal can last a lifetime.
Post Operative Care Instruction
- After having root canal you can expect to have some discomfort for the first 12 hours or so. This is a normal occurrence and is nothing to worry about. This is caused by the dentist working onย the tooth and it should feel normal by the next day. If you find that you are still having pain and it seems to be getting worse or you notice any swelling starting please call the office right away.
- You may have a medicine taste in your mouth at first because a medication has been placed in the canal and you will notice that a temporary filling has been placed in the tooth.
- Try to stay away from sticky food but in the event that you lose the filling please call to have it replaced so that food and other debris doesnโ€t get down into the canal and cause reinfection.
Advantages & Disadvantages of Root Canal Treatment
Advantages :
- Any infection will only get worse with time, if left untreated.
- The greatest advantage is that the tooth will not need to be extracted in the future.
Disadvantages:
- Occasionally, infected tissue is pushed through the ends of the root infecting the gum. This can be treated easily, but there will be some pain until the infection is cleared up.
- Canals are irregularly shaped, and if the canal is not accurately measured then it wonโ€t be cleaned or filled properly. This will cause the pulp to become infected again and a second procedure will be necessary.
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