Endodontics
Endodontics
Endodontics is the branch of dentistry concerned with diseases of the pulp tissue inside the tooth. The most common procedure done in endodontics is root-canal therapy. This procedure aims to save a tooth that would otherwise be extracted due to infection caused by decay (a cavity in the tooth), a large filling, or trauma to the tooth.
Root canal therapy involves the removal of diseased pulp tissue inside the tooth. The aim of treatment is to remove irreversibly inflamed or necrotic pulp tissue before infection sets in or even after it has already set in. When the pulp tissue becomes infected, caused by bacteria from inside the tooth, the infection can leak out of the tooth’s root and make the surrounding bone ill and painful or cause an abscess to form. Once the diseased pulp tissues are removed, the body’s defense system can then repair the damage created by disease. Usually, this will require 2-3 visits to your dentist. The dentist will use a local anesthetic to make the procedure pain-free.
The tooth is not a solid object, but rather has a space in its center. Each tooth has a soft tissue (the pulp) in this space. This tissue partially nourishes the tooth from the inside. Because of deep decay, injury, or gum disease, the tissue in your tooth can become inflamed or infected (diseased). In any other part of your body, if a similar tissue becomes diseased, the body merely throws it off and forms new tissue. However, a tooth is a unique and different situation. Because the soft tissue within the tooth is totally encased within hard tissue, the body cannot get to it in order to affect repair.
Therefore, it is the role of the dentist to do what the body is unable to do. He must remove the soft tissue located in the internal spaces (canals), cleanse the area, and finally fill the canals with a special material so that bacteria cannot re-enter the tooth to cause another infection. When the endodontic treatment is complete, the tooth is by no means “dead”, it receives quite adequate support from the surrounding tissues and may be expected to last as long as any other natural tooth.
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