If you have a toothache, how do you know whether it’s a passing pain or if you need a filling or even root canal treatment? Sometimes it’s easy to ignore dental discomfort. Short bursts of discomfort are often forgotten until they’re triggered again. More consistent pains can often play on your mind.
When you’re in constant pain, it can cause lots of worry. You may wonder if you need a root canal treatment, whether the tooth can be saved, and how the potential issue might affect your overall oral health and the appearance of your smile.
Root canal treatments may sound scary, but the reality is the procedure is routine and straightforward. For the best chance of success, it’s always best to seek treatment early.
In this article, we’ll look at some of the signs and symptoms you may have a dental infection and will need root canal treatment.
What Do Root Canal Treatments Do?
A root canal treatment removes bacteria and infection from a diseased tooth. The main aim of the treatment is to save the tooth and stop the infection from spreading and causing further damage.
Root canal treatments are essential treatment if your tooth is infected. The procedure has a high success rate.
What Causes Dental Infections?
Dental infections often follow decay or physical trauma to a tooth.
Inside each tooth, an area called the pulp chamber houses nerve endings and connective tissue. The dental pulp reaches down into the root canal of the tooth. In teeth like your molars at the back of your mouth, you can have up to three root canals.
If bacteria enter your tooth through a crack or cavity and reach the living cells at its heart, it causes infection.
What Are the Symptoms Of a Dental Infection?
There are several signs that could mean you have a dental infection. The most noticeable is a constant throbbing pain in or around the infected tooth.
As bacteria infect the living tissue, it causes inflammation inside the tooth, which leads to pressure against the nerve endings.
Other signs of infection could include swelling in the gums and cheek around the infected tooth, bad breath, and a strange taste in the mouth. In some cases, the tooth can become darker, and pus may form near the root.
Will a Dental Infection Go Away On Its Own?
Dental infections don’t go away without treatment. In fact, if your tooth is infected, the problem is likely to grow. Infections spread. After killing the initial tooth, it will move onto your neighbouring teeth, gums, and jaws.
Left untreated, advanced cases could cause tooth loss and jaw deterioration. In extreme cases, a dental infection could enter your bloodstream and become sepsis. This is a life-threatening condition affecting major organs like the heart and lungs.
Do Root Canal Treatments Hurt?
Root canal treatment may have a reputation for being painful; however, it’s not. The infection it treats is very painful, but the actual procedure is performed under local anaesthetic. This means you won’t feel any pain.
After your anaesthetic wears off, it’s normal to feel some sensitivity. This passes within a few days, but the severe pain from your infection will usually have gone.
Root Canal Treatment In St John’s Wood
If you are concerned that you may need a root canal treatment because you have toothache or any other symptoms, it’s always best to come in for an examination sooner, rather than later. The earlier we catch an infection, the more chance we have of success and the sooner you can have a pain-free tooth again.
Get in touch today and schedule an appointment.
