The inside of your tooth is actually soft – this material is referred to as “dental pulp” and makes up the very inner later of the tooth structure. This soft material can become prone to infection when teeth are not properly maintained, leading to infectious materials making their way inside the tooth. This infection can lead to extreme pain for the patient, making it necessary to have this root material removed and replaced with a synthetic material.

If this process is not done, the tooth may need to be extracted entirely to stop this pain. Root canals seek to stop this pain, and save the tooth.

Before a root canal begins, your dentist will use a local anesthesia to numb the entire surrounding area of the tooth to ensure the highest level of comfort during the root canal procedure. This injection is humorously enough what many root canal patients find to be the most painful part of their root canal! Beyond this point, many patients feel very little to no discomfort.

Once the patient is comfortable, your dentist will then access the inner part of the tooth, remove the infected materials, and then replace them with a synthetic material that then saves the tooth.