What is a Root Canal?
Everyone cringes at the thought of a root canal, but exactly what are they, and why would you need one? Why are they the bar by which negative experiences are measured?
Let’s take a closer look at RCT
A root canal, also called root canal therapy or RCT for short, is a dental procedure designed to clean and restore a tooth when the soft tissue inside, known as the pulp, becomes inflamed or infected. If not for the option of a root canal, the tooth in need of treatment would have to be extracted.
There are downsides to extraction, besides the obvious cosmetic changes. These include loss of bone in the jaw and teeth drift in the surrounding area. The missing tooth will need to be replaced by a dental implant or a bridge to avoid these issues. Although an extraction may be less costly in the beginning, the cost over time is much more.
It’s important to know that there have been great strides in dentistry over the past few decades with improvements to diagnostics and instruments used for RCT. Local anesthesia is used to prevent pain during the treatment. A correctly done root canal by an experienced dentist is not more painful or difficult than any other dental procedure. The simple truth is that RCT does not cause pain; it relieves it.
