As dental experts, our goal is to do everything we can to preserve your teeth and one of the most useful tools for accomplishing this goal is the root canal procedure. Not to mention, this simple procedure provides the much-needed benefit of relieving your tooth pain.
At McLean Aura Dentistry, Drs. Negar Tehrani and Chang Yi and our team have extensive experience helping our patients overcome painful tooth infections with the root canal procedure.
If you want to learn more about how we perform a root canal procedure and what you can expect afterward, read on.
A root canal procedure is designed to clear away an infection in your root canal to prevent irreparable damage to your tooth.
When you come in for a root canal procedure, we first ensure your comfort with a local anesthetic. If you’re uncomfortable with dental procedures in general, we also provide sedation dentistry.
Once you’re ready, we begin by removing any existing fillings, then we create a very small opening in the crown of your tooth to access the root. Using small instruments, we clear out the infected pulp inside your root canals. This pulp, which contains nerves and blood vessels, was critical during the development of your tooth, but your tooth no longer relies on the material once it takes its final form.
Once we remove the pulp, we disinfect the chambers to ensure that no infectious materials remain, then we refill your root canals with gutta-percha, a material that seals your root canals to prevent future infections.
At this point, your root canal procedure is finished and we place a temporary filling over the opening and send you home.
When you return home after your root canal procedure, you should avoid eating for a few hours, though you can eat soft foods if you’re really hungry. We also encourage you to care for your teeth as you normally would, namely brushing and flossing before bed.
By the next day following your root canal procedure, you can get back to your normal activities with one notable difference — your tooth will no longer be a source of pain or discomfort!
In most cases, your final step is to return to us in a week or two so that we can place a crown over your tooth, which will protect the structure for years to come.
If you have more questions about what to expect from a root canal procedure, please contact our office in McLean, Virginia, and one of our staff can help you.
