Our topic in the next months is root canal treatment and its risks! (2/10)
Today we will talk about why it is necessary to perform treatment on a root canal:
- The most common reason is a deep cavity.
Cavities are caused by bacteria, and once the bacteria have reached your dental nerve, you start to feel pain, and the dentist has to perform an operation on your root canal. As long as the cavity is still only in your enamel, the early stage of cavities (as shown by the blue arrow in the x-ray), then it can be treated without drilling. But once the cavity reaches the dentine, the dentist has to drill.
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- But the presence of cavities is not the only reason for treating a root canal. Physical damage, eg. caused by overheating during dental work, various chemicals used to make fillings, or paradontitis which has gone untreated for too long can also cause damage to the nerve, and then you also need treatment.
What is commonly called a “dental nerve“ is actually a network of blood vessels, lymph vessels, connective tissue and nerve tissue – a.k.a.the endodont.
Damage to the endodont causes an inflammation, which usually kills it. And just as meat begins to rot when it has been lying around on the kitchen table for too long, the endodont also begins to decay once it is dead.
If the dental nerve was killed by a cavity then you not only have the problem of decaying tissue, but also bacteria, which damage the surrounding bone.
This can be a painful process, or then again you may not feel a thing – the dentist refers to this as pulpitis followed by necrotic pulp.
If the endodont is destroyed it also damages the surrounding jaw bone – but this can be prevented by proper treatment!