What comes to mind when you think of May? Summer, the beach, root canals? This week we celebrate national root canal day! Most people are reserved when it comes to getting a root canal, but getting a root canal can save your tooth! What we commonly call a root canal is a special treatment for a tooth when the nerve has become infected. When the tooth becomes infected the inflammation usually will cause discomfort, and when a tooth becomes inflamed it can allow for other microorganisms to pass through the tooth’s root and cause an abscess (which is a swollen accumulation of pus).
How that happens is by getting a crack in the tooth or having a tooth with a large cavity that doesn’t get treated.
What is a root canal? A root canal itself is actually a set of hollow, branching passages deep inside the hard outer tissue of the tooth. The tiny “canals” contain the tooth’s soft pulp, including nerves, blood vessels and connective tissue. When we perform a root canal we go inside the tiny canals and clean out the sick nerve, place a filler inside the canal, and then restore the tooth.