Root Canal Treatment at Bondi Dental in Sydney

Why Root Canal?

A root canal therapy is prescribed by your dentist if one of your teeth suffers irreversible pulpal damage and there is a need to retain the affected tooth for various reasons. Bondi Dental is a modern and relaxed environment where patients requiring dental emergency and general restorative procedures are seen 24 hours a day. We offer affordable dental treatments for a range of dental issues, including damage to the pulp of the tooth.

Call us on (02) 9365 3988 to find out about our root canal treatment at Bondi Dental in Sydney.

Dental Pulp and Damaged Pulp

Each tooth is "hollow" inside and this is where the "pulp" lives. The pulp of a tooth is filled with nerves and blood vessels. A healthy pulp maintains the colour and strength of each tooth. However, damaged pulp will cause dental pain.

Call us on (02) 9365 3988 to discuss your dental pain.

The reasons for the damaged pulp can be several:

The most common cause is the undetected decay within the tooth, which allows the bacteria from the decaying site to spread towards the pulp and thus killing the tooth.

If this process is a slow one, the pulp will die without you even knowing. Some long standing pulpal death can result in the loss of bone at the tip of the root(s) and can sometimes become cystic. When you notice a “pimple” appearing in the gum, it is almost certain that a chronic infection is occurring in one of the teeth in the immediate vicinities. If the spreading of the decay is rapid, the pulpal tissue is attacked by the bacteria, the result is known to a lot of people as acute tooth ache.

Faulty, broken and leaking "fillings" will have the same effect as the undetected decay mentioned above.

Another common reason for pulpal injury is when the tooth fractures. The fracture line can go through to the pulp and cause pulpal injury and subsequent pulpal infection.

Other causes for the pulpal injuries are of accidental trauma. This is self evident and usually involves the front teeth.

Call us on (02) 9365 3988 to get your teeth assessed.

The consequences of damaged/dead pulp:

As mentioned above, if the pulp death is slow, there could be no symptoms for a long time until it becomes infected. The bone loss can be gradual and can only be detected by radiographs. There are reported cases that the bone loss can be as large as an Australian 10cent coin in diameter. The dentist will have other means to determine the state of the pulp.

When the "pimple" is noted, that simply means that the infection is now becoming chronic and the body is trying to get rid of the pus through the jaw bone.
The acute form of pulpal infection results in the type of visit to the each dental office as "emergency". Patients are usually distressed, with acute pain and not controlled by regular "pain killer" and sometimes with massive facial swelling.

Call us on (02) 9365 3988 if you are experiencing these or any other symptoms.

The Root Canal Treatment

The objective is to remove the source of infection. If the offending tooth is strategically and functionally important, root canal treatment therefore may be the answer. Otherwise, ultimately the tooth will need to be extracted.

Is a root canal treatment painful?

Many people worry about having a root canal, as they imagine that it might be very painful. These fears are unfounded, as anaesthetic will make this a pain free dental treatment.

In order to give you more insight into the nature of a root canal, here is the basic procedure and what take places.

Firstly, you will be given an injection to anesthetise you with a local aesthetic. This will turn your gums numb and ensure that no pain is felt by you during the procedure.

The root canal procedure

If there is enough crown left above the gum line then a small clamp will be placed around that crown. A rubber sheet is then placed around the clamp, with a small hole for access to the tooth. The rubber sheet actually protects the tooth from the rest of the mouth. This is called a rubber dam and stops the possibility of dropping any of the small dental instruments into the mouth, and it gives the dentist a clear working area.

The dentist will then drill down into the top of the tooth, looking for the nerve. To do this he will use a dental drill. He is looking for the dental pulp that is causing the abscess to your mouth. The nerve is then cleaned out with a drill.

Following this a series of very small holes are made with flexible pins. The pins have serrations along their edge. They are inserted into every canal right to the tip of the nerve. This ensures that everything inside the nerve is removed. This also means that the sides of the canal of smooth and clean.

At every pass with the dentist files, the tooth is irrigated with Clorox, a diluted sterlising solution, which is very effective at washing out the debris of the tooth and ensuring that it is sterilised.

The bleach will not enter your mouth as you still have the rubber dam in your mouth, so don’t be concerned with this. More recently, dentists have stopped using bleach and have instead used a powerful disinfectant that does not case the patient problems if it were to enter the patient’s mouth.

Once the tooth has been totally cleaned out, it will be dried with tiny paper points. From here each canal is fitted with a rubber cone that fills the gap and blocks the canal. The rubber is very effective and waterproof so there is no chance of problems with this part of the procedure.

Now that you have a brief over view of the produce for a root canal, you should be much more relaxed and less anxious about the root canal that may well save your tooth.

Call us on (02) 9365 3988 if you have any further questions about root canal treatment, or any of our other affordable dental treatments.