Often patient comes to a dentist with:
- Severe pain while chewing or biting
- Swollen or tender gum
- Pus discharge from gum in relation to a carious tooth/teeth
- Severely chipped/cracked tooth with or without dental pain and dental sensitivity.
- Discolored tooth with dental trauma.
- Deep cavity with severe and continuous pain.
- Lingering sensitivity to hot or cold, even after the sensation has been removed.
- Others..
In the old era of dentistry, these types of dental problems were only managed by extraction of the offending tooth/teeth.
But, in modern dentistry, these types of dental problems are often managed by Root Canal Treatment (RCT), provided the dental decay is restricted up to a certain limit.
What is RCT?
A root canal treatment is a dental procedure to remove inflamed or infected pulp of a tooth, the inside of the pulp chamber i.e., coronal and radicular is then cleaned carefully, disinfected, and sealed. RCT is designed to eliminate microorganisms from the infected root canal(s), prevent reinfection of the tooth, and save the natural tooth/teeth.
This treatment (TRT) has many advantages like:
- A) Efficient chewing
- B) Normal biting force
- C) Natural appearance
- D) Protects other teeth from excessive wear or strain
- E) Maintains the offending tooth/teeth in its position so that it helps in chewing, incising, and is also esthetically acceptable.
Re-RCT
Re-RCT is a procedure to treat a tooth that has been infected or damaged again after a root canal treatment. It is like the conventional RCT, but it involves removal of the old filling materials, previous dental crowns, etc., as required.
In most of the posterior tooth RCT, it is followed by placement of a dental crown over it. It makes the remaining crown more durable.
RCT in medically compromised patients:
The patients who are on anticoagulant or anti-platelet medications are very prone to bleeding.
Proper measures are taken in those patients during RCTs.
RCT of wisdom tooth:
Wisdom teeth are best known for their difficult root canal anatomy and canal configuration. Their number of roots and thereby root canals also vary a lot. Sometimes, their roots have very typical curvature.
Special endodontic instruments are required sometimes in extreme cases.