RESTORATIVE DENTISTRY IN TACOMA & LAKEWOOD
Root Canal Treatment
Save the tooth. Lose the toothache.
Root canals have a reputation. The reality? If you’re coming in with a badly infected or painful tooth, the root canal is usually the part that makes you feel better.
Root canal treatment removes infected tissue from inside the tooth, cleans the area, and seals it so you can keep your natural tooth instead of losing it.
We provide root canal treatment for patients at our Tacoma and Lakewood offices.
What is a root canal?
A root canal is a dental treatment used to save a tooth when the soft tissue inside it, called the pulp, becomes infected or badly inflamed. Depending on what your symptoms and your X-ray tell us, we may recommend root canal therapy. This is a routine endodontic treatment and a normal part of dental care. After we apply the anesthetic, we access the tooth’s root by using a special drill. In the deep part of the tooth, the tooth’s root, we find the diseased dental pulp and remove it. In every case, we try to save the patient’s natural tooth. If there’s little natural tooth left, we install a robust, authentic dental crown so the patient can chew effectively and walk away with a confident, beautiful smile.
Will I need a crown?
Many procedures require a crown to cap the remaining part of the tooth, but this may not be true of your tooth. If the infected tooth is near the back of the mouth—a molar or premolar—it’s likely that a crown will be necessary; the crown will add strength and support to the mouth for movements involving a lot of pressure, like chewing and grinding.
In some instances, a crown may not be necessary. Teeth near the front of the mouth—canines and incisors—may be left uncapped (depending on the amount of damage in the tooth prior to the root canal procedure).
What are the risks of root canal treatment?
While no procedure is without some risk, root canal therapy is a longstanding, effective treatment used and vetted by countless endodontists around the world. Some risks might include:
- Lingering, infected tissue that could lead to the development of abscess
- Infected material that may have survived the antibiotics
- Damage to side canals
Take these risks into consideration when deciding whether to continue with root canal therapy. Remember that while no procedure is guaranteed, chances of failure are substantially diminished with the proper tools, education and experience. At Plancich Dental, we stand firmly on these pillars to provide the highest standard in integrated dentistry at the deepest level of care.
Can any Tacoma or Lakewood-based dentist do root canals?
No, but we can. It takes a root canal specialist (endodontist) to perform root canals. General dentists perform some complex procedures, such as tooth extractions, but they should never perform a root canal. Plancich Dental practice a model of integrated dentistry, which allows our patients to receive holistic care—ranging from root canals to Clarity Aligners—all from our two convenient Pierce county-based locations.
Don’t wait for it to make the decision for you
The sooner we can look at a painful tooth, the more options we may have for saving it.
