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Santee Dentist Office | Dental Express
Santee Dentist Office | Dental Express
At Dental Express Santee, our caring dentists look forward to helping you with your routine, cosmetic, restorative, and pediatric dental needs.

Root Canal Cracked Tooth

Natural teeth are meant to last a lifetime. Many years ago, diseased or damaged teeth were often pulled. The good news is that this is not the case today. Root canal therapy can save a tooth.

Root canal Cracked Tooth treatment is a necessary procedure when the pulp of the tooth, made up of soft tissue in the tooth that contains blood vessels, nerves and connective tissue, becomes inflamed or diseased and the dentist and patient want to save the tooth.

The need for a root canal can arise as a result of:

A deep cavity

Repeated dental procedures on the same tooth.

A cracked or broken tooth

This treatment is usually indicated when the patient suffers from:

Dull pain in the tooth or area,

Swelling that becomes more and more uncomfortable.

A stabbing pain

A small pimple or blister that won't go away with time.

Or sometimes there are no symptoms.

During this therapy, the dentist or endodontist, a dental specialist who performs root canal treatments, removes the diseased pulp. The pulp chamber and root canals of the tooth are then cleaned and sealed.

Failure to remove the infected pulp from the tooth can lead to pain, swelling and infection and may require removal of the tooth. Even when there is no pain, certain substances released by bacteria can damage the bone that anchors the tooth in the jaws. Without treatment, the tooth can become loose and must be pulled.

There is a downside to losing a natural tooth. When one is lost and not replaced, the adjacent teeth can begin to shift from their normal position. This can cause the teeth to become crooked and full. This makes eating and biting more difficult. Teeth are more likely to have gum disease because they are harder to keep clean. In addition, replacing missing teeth with bridges or implants is more expensive than root canal treatment and requires work on adjacent teeth. A natural tooth is generally preferable to an artificial one.

When a patient takes care of their teeth and gums, the tooth treated with a restored root canal can last a lifetime with regular checkups. A tooth without a nerve can still develop gum disease and cavities. Usually, a root canal is a simple procedure with little to no discomfort. It can be completed in one to three visits.

When the treatment is finished, the dentist must restore the tooth so that it is strong to withstand the biting forces of the mouth. Often this is done with a post and a simple restoration. If a simple restoration is not possible due to a large loss of tooth structure, a crown is placed on the tooth.