Whether to Save a Tooth or Extract it ?

Know how Root Canal treatment helps to save a tooth

Hi friends I am doctor Premendra Goyal. Lot of questions are asked to us about whether to save a tooth or to extract it. I will talk to you about root canal treatment today which is a treatment by which we can save your tooth and it can serve for a lifetime with good maintenance. A tooth basically is a lot of hard tissue with some tissue in the center, you can it the heart of your tooth which in our language is called as pulp and layman end up calling it something as nerve. Once that nerve or pulp portion of your tooth is exposed to the oral cavity in some way may be a fracture of your tooth, may be decay, cavities- as we call them, once the heart of your tooth, the pulp of your tooth, the nerve of your tooth is exposed to the oral cavity your tooth is in danger. Tissue goes bad, infection travels, it goes deeper and it enters your bone area.

Now to save that tooth or not that is the first question that comes to the mind. By saving that tooth we are saving the natural thing that nature has given us. We have been trying to replace or replicate what nature has given us, but 100% replication of what nature has given us is not possible till date. So the best option is always to save a natural thing, and that can be easily done by root canal treatment. In root canal treatment I will try to explain in as simple language as simple the procedure is for the patient. I will reiterate- for the patient, for the clinician or for your dentist it definitely is a process which involves a lot of intricacies but for a patient it is a very simple procedure, wherein local anesthesia is given and the area is numbed and you don’t feel any pain when you undergo the treatment.

A small hole is drilled on the top of the tooth, if it is a grinder, if it is the front tooth the hole is drilled on the back side of your tooth and the nerve area is accessed. And through small instruments the inside and the root area of your tooth is cleaned, up it is shaped, it is disinfected with lot of medicaments and then it is finally filled up with artificial material and then your tooth is restored to normalcy with a cap sometimes or a post which is a support inside the root and building up with the tooth canal material or a material of your choice.

I will give you a broad overview about how a root canal treatment goes about in the pictorial representation. (Displaying pictures) Suppose this was the decayed tooth, a small opening is made on the top of the tooth, we enter the tooth with small instruments, and with the advent of newer technologies it is possible today to complete your root canal in one single sitting, a half an hour to 45 minute appointment and you can end up with a painless tooth. First the root canal is cleaned, it is disinfected with certain medicaments, a artificial filling is placed in the root and then the tooth is restored on the top. So the question of whether to save a tooth or whether to extract it ends up with a proper restored tooth which works for a very long time serving you, thank you.

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