Root Filling
Root canal treatment or endodontics is used to save the tooth when the dental pulp (blood vessels and nerve in the centre of the tooth) dies and the tooth becomes infected. The cause of infection is usually decay in the tooth, under a filling or in the fracture of a tooth. Without treatment, this can cause a dental abscess resulting in pain, swelling and infection of the jaw bone.
The aim of root canal surgery is to avoid removal of the tooth where possible. Before surgery, you may be given antibiotics to control any infection that has gone beyond the tooth, to the bone
The only alternative to carrying out root canal treatment is to remove the tooth. Although some people would prefer an extraction, it is usually best to keep as many natural teeth as possible.
When the pulp of the tooth is dying or has died, the pulp chamber becomes infected. The body's own natural defences cannot fight the infection because no circulation remains in the tooth. Root canal treatment is used to open up the pulp chamber, clean out the infected remains of the pulp and fill the chamber with an inert (non-active) material to prevent the infection returning.
Disease or infection of the tooth pulp occurs when tooth decay is not treated or when there has been a knock or blow to the tooth. A loose or broken filling may also cause infection in the tooth pulp.
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