Celebrating Root Canal Awareness Week

With the 10th Annual Root Canal Awareness Week just around the corner, let’s tackle the two words most hope to never hear from a dentist: root canal. A recent survey from the American Association of Endodontists (AAE) showed that 67% of people surveyed said pain was the most concerning part of a root canal treatment. Although root canals are often believed to be a traumatic procedure, when done with modern techniques from a trained dentist, getting a root canal can be fairly painless and easy. The AAE, along with your family dentist in Valencia, wants to raise awareness of root canal treatments and how proper dental hygiene can prevent needing them. 

What is a root canal?
The tooth is composed of many different parts that play different roles in your dental health. The enamel is the pearly part of the tooth we all try so hard to keep white. Just under that is the dentin, which is a pathway for plaque to get from the enamel to the pulp. The pulp holds and protects your teeth’s roots. When the roots become infected or inflamed, a root canal may be necessary. Through preliminary x-rays, your dentist will identify the depth of your cavity and decipher based on the extent of the damage if you will need a filling or a root canal. 

After the use of a local anesthetic, your dentist will use a special dental tool to disinfect, remove, and clean out the infected pulp. The cleared root canal will then be filled with a rubber compound and sealed with a cementing paste. The process is finished out with a filling or a crown to protect from further infection and restore the tooth to a healthy state. This root canal process saves the natural tooth instead of needing to remove a decayed tooth and replacing it with a dental implant. 

How do I prevent a root canal?
Like most dental procedures, root canal can usually be prevented by taking pride in your oral health. Following the tips below and making regular trips to your Valencia dentist will help keep your teeth healthy:

• Maintain a low-acid and low-sugar diet. When the natural bacteria, plaque, that lives on your teeth is combined with any carbohydrate, an acid is released and will begin eating at your enamel. 
• Brush and floss your teeth 2-3 times a day, particularly after every meal. Don’t give any residual carbohydrates the chance to start the decay process!  
• If you are involved in any contact sports or activities, make sure you wear a protective mouth guard. Trauma to teeth can lead to a weakened tooth structure making it more susceptible to infection.  
• Visit your friendly Valencia dentist every 6 months for a check-up and cleaning. This will pre-emptively identify any cavities that could potentially turn into needing a root canal.

Go Dental - Top Valencia Dentist

smile@thedentist.com

Root Canals: Friend or Foe

It’s a moment that nobody ever wants to face:  The dentist pulls back in their chair and utters the unspeakable words, “I think you’re going to need a root canal”.  Your face feels flushed, your hands begin to shake, and your eyes begin to well with tears.  Then it’s - “OMG, A ROOT CANAL!!!”

Root canals are one of the most dreaded procedures the entire world.  It makes me cringe when I hear the expression, “I would rather have a root canal than _________” (fill in the blank with the most unpleasant, demeaning, disgusting activity known to humankind). Contrary to popular belief, root canals have come a long way and they are no longer the painful, time consuming procedures that they used to be.  In fact, most people wouldn't be able to tell the difference between getting a root canal and getting a simple filling.

My favorite thing to tell patients is that our Valencia dental practice loves performing root canals. That being said, our dentists understand

that our patients don’t share the same enthusiasm. We love doing them because, professionally, they are one of the most challenging procedures to do, and honestly, we are really good at doing them. But we will try to avoid performing root canals because we know that patients cannot stand going through them.  

So how do we determine whether or not a Root Canal is necessary? If the nerve of a tooth has died or has even been compromised, it must be removed. Generally, we will access the nerve by creating an opening from the top of the tooth. The nerve and blood supply is then removed with small instruments which are fractions of millimeters in diameter. Once the nerve of the tooth is removed, we widen the tooth space where the nerve once was. This space is called the “root canal”, and clearing it out enables us to fill the tooth with a special filling material. Even though the tooth’s nerve and associated blood supply is no longer present, the tooth structure can last for many many years provided a crown is placed on it.  

So you can see why root canals can be associated with pain; we are essentially working on an exposed nerve. That is why anesthesia is so important. Without it, the patient would be in a great deal of discomfort. If you are really anxious, your body may lower the effectiveness of the anesthetic so we have options like nitrous oxide and twilight sleep available for you.

Our doctors have invested a lot of resources to acquire the latest root canal therapy equipment and to become experts in the most advanced techniques. Root Canals used to take 3 appointments of 2 hours to complete but now we can complete most procedures in just one appointment of 1 ½ each. The procedure not only is completed faster but it is also far more accurate, resulting in greater success rates.

Many emergencies that we see with our new patients are from root canals that have been done poorly in the past. Like I mentioned before, root canal procedures are one of the most difficult procedures to perform in dentistry. Not every dentist has the ability and resources to perform root canals with excellent long term results. When we see cases of failed root canals, we have a great team of root canal specialists that we can consult.  

From all of as at Go Dental, we truly hope that you never need a root canal. But if you do, rest assured, you are in great hands.

Sincerely, 

Your Valencia Dentist

Dr. Christopher Go

Abused Dental Procedures Part 2: Crowns, Fillings & Root Canals

This is the second of two articles discussing common ways less than honest dentists can take advantage of patients. In the prior post, we discussed in some detail periodontal scalings which is commonly over prescribed by dental practitioners. We have also discussed the importance of your right as a patient to get a second opinion or even a third opinion.  While there is much in dentistry that is subjective, the reason for treatment must make sense to you as a patient and should be backed with objective research.  I will follow up today with the remaining procedures that we see diagnosed by others but in truth, do not really need to get done.

Crowns:

Crowns (aka caps) are done very often in dentistry and for good reason.  When older white or silver fillings begin to show signs of leakage, often times, the next progression for restoration of the tooth is to do a crown.  But not every restoration replacement requires a crown. Criteria for a crown include:

1. The existing restoration shows signs of breakdown, leakage and recurrent decay under the filling.  If your dentist has an intra-oral camera, have them take a photo so that you can see the breakdown of the restoration. You will see cracks, brown and black outlines around the tooth and sometimes a dark “halo” around the restoration.  These are the signs of recurrent decay.  If your dentist doesn't have an intra-oral camera, it’s time to change dentists.  
2. On the x-ray, the existing restoration should be large taking up over 60% of the tooth above the gum line.  If it’s not a large restoration, chances are you don’t need a crown.
3. A crown may be necessary if there is pain when you bite into certain foods.  This is a sign that your tooth may be cracking and propagating down to the nerve of the tooth.  Placing a crown acts to keep the parts of the tooth together and evenly distributes the load forces associated with chewing preventing the tooth from splitting further.

Be wary about doing a crown if the existing filling is small or if you simply see cracks in a tooth without pain or existing restorations.  Sensitivity to sweets can be a symptom to leaking restorations and/or decay but just because you don’t have sweet sensitivity, doesn’t mean you don’t have leaking fillings.

Fillings:

Fillings are done when there are areas of decay in the tooth.  Basically, decay is a bacterial invasion of the tooth which continues to get larger unless the affected tooth structure is completely removed then sealed with a dental restorative material.
  

1. Fillings usually need to be done if you feel sensitivity to sweets.
2. They are done when there is less than 60% of the tooth surface is affected.
3. On dental x-rays, you can see a triangular dark area in between the teeth which is not viewable during your clinical exam.
4. If on the top of the tooth, a dental explorer may “stick” into the tooth, indicating a soft spot that decay has penetrated through.

The biggest misconception is that if the groves on the top of the teeth are brown or stained, that this a cavity which needs to be filled.  The tops of teeth are naturally stained and this usually does not mean that they have cavities.  If there is a “stick” with the explorer or radiographic evidence of decay, then these stains are probably decay which need to get treated and restored.

Root Canals

Intentional misdiagnosis of root canals is not nearly as common as the aforementioned diagnosis, but we see this from time to time so I thought I would quickly mention it here.  Usually a root canal needs to be done if you are in dental pain which can be attributed to a specific tooth.  However, that is not always the case.  There are times when a root canal needs to be done because there simply is not enough tooth structure above the gumline.  You may have had pain on a tooth and suddenly it doesn't bother you anymore.  This is often a sign of necrosis.  The tooth can be saved, but a root canal must be done to remove the dead material inside the tooth.  If you have doubts if your tooth needs a root canal, you should seek an opinion from a root canal specialist or endodontist.

Most dentists are honest professionals who really have the best interest of their patients at heart. However, it is always ok to get a second opinion and most dentists who are trustworthy welcome second opinions.  Always follow your intuition and if something doesn't make sense to you, don’t move forward with the procedure.  Getting dental work done is time consuming and expensive.  Make certain that it is something you need done before moving ahead with treatment.

Go Dental, Your Valencia Dentist