You’ve just finished your day, now you’re ready to kick back and watch some football. You grab a cold soda and drink. Soon you’re grimacing because the soda has caused irritation to one of your teeth. Or maybe it’s hot soup that causes the issue.
If you are experiencing sensitivity to hot or cold foods and beverages, your body may be giving you a sign that something is wrong. Specifically, it may be warning you that there’s damage inside one of your teeth. When this happens, there’s only one practical solution: a root canal.
If you shudder with fear when you hear the phrase root canal, you are not alone. Root canals seem to enjoy a fearful reputation in the dental community. Patients often hear stories about them, then avoid needed dental work out of fear.
At Bayou Family Dental, we want to assure you that you have nothing to fear about root canals. In today’s blog post from our comfortable Monroe, LA office, we want to tell you a little more about root canals. Mainly, we want to tell you about how important they can be, and we you don’t need to fear them anymore.
Many patients are unclear about the necessity of a Root Canal. We only perform Root Canals because we want to save your tooth. If damage or decay necessitates a Root Canal, you are at great risk for losing the tooth if you do nothing. In addition, the damage and decay in an affected tooth can spread to your gums or other teeth if left untreated.
You may notice signs that you need a root canal. This may be intense signs, such as painful swelling, or constant toothaches. Or they might be smaller signs, such as a pimple on your gums or even just bad breath.
If you’re experiencing those signs, we encourage you to contact our office. If we can detect and treat a problem early, we can often save the tooth. During a root canal, we clean out decay from your dental pulp. Then we fill the tooth. This helps to ensure that tooth remains healthy, by removing the affecting decay and nerves from the center of the tooth.
For most of our patients, this is their biggest concern before undergoing a Root Canal. Afterwards, they always tell us that it was really no more uncomfortable than getting a filling. We perform Root Canals under local anesthesia, ensuring your mouth is numb and the procedure is pain-free.
We also offer Oral Sedation to our patients, if you’d prefer to largely be unaware of the procedure and feel relaxed. Oral Sedation is achieved by prescribing you a mild anti-anxiety medication to take prior to you appointment, it helps ensure that you’ll be relaxed.
Make An Appointment
If you think you may need a Root Canal, you can click right here to schedule an appointment with the Bayou Dental Group in Monroe, LA. We will examine your teeth, and inform you of all your options.