If you have ever suffered from a dental abscess, we are fairly certain that you will never want to experience anything like it again!

And as standard treatment, two solutions are offered to those who have recently had a dental abscess; standard extraction and a root canal.

At Deakin Dental, as we are all about preserving teeth whenever possible, our dentist Canberra will always aim to offer our patients a root canal or other suitable treatment over an extraction. As a rather simple, but unfortunately disliked procedure, a root canal will preserve the aesthetics of your smile and will help you to prevent restorative works from being needed, such as implants or dentures. Great!

But what are the stages involved in having a root canal performed? Our dentist Canberra offers the following five step guide for your information.

Preparing and accessing

Before we do anything else, our dentist Canberra will numb the area with a local anaesthetic. Once you are numbed, we will begin drilling down into the roots of your tooth to access the pulp. This can be a very delicate procedure and we will take it very slowly. Once the holes have been drilled, we will widen them to allow our team to gain better access to the pulp for cleaning.

Cleaning the pulp

OK, so in case you aren’t aware or haven’t been told what a dental abscess is, it is due to the pulp becoming inflamed and overrun with bacteria. To speed up the healing process, we will aim to clean the pulp by removing the infected debris from around it.

Depending on the level of damage that has been done to the pulp, we may also need to remove a part of it or all of it. But don’t worry! This doesn’t kill the tooth and will actually help you to feel much better post-treatment.

Filling

Once the roots of the infected tooth have been cleaned, we will begin filling them.

As your tooth has now been hollowed out, we will need to make it structurally sound to be usable in daily life. We will use a filling material that is similar to composite, which will offer the same structural advantages as composite, by being hardy and tough to shatter.

Once your roots and tooth have been filled, we will decide on the next step.

Crowns and fillings

When it comes to placing a crown or a filling on top of a root canal, it really comes down to how badly damaged or decayed the tooth was before the root canal was fitted.

In cases where there was a minor crack in the enamel that allowed the bacterial infiltration, we will usually place a filling. If you have had extensive decay and the tooth has had to be filed down and shaped, we will aim to fit a crown to rebuild the external damage.

Antibiotics

Now that the treatment is completed and your tooth is restored, we may need to keep you on antibiotics to help your body recover from the infection.

Please finish the course, as dental infections can and do recur. Eat softer foods as your treated tooth heals and soon, you should be feeling better!

DISCLAIMER

All treatment carries risks. Individual consultation is required with one of our practitioners to ensure that the treatment is right for you.