What is Root Canal Treatment (RCT)?
Root Canal Treatment is the treatment procedure to save an infected or injured tooth. The procedure involves removal of the affected pulp tissue which has infected blood vessels & nerve fibres, clears infection and relieves tooth pain.
Root Canal Treatment Procedure
- The affected tooth is anaesthetized with a local anaesthesia
- Tooth is then drilled, to reach the pulp chamber and to have access to the pulp chamber and root canals.
- Fine instruments are used to reach the root canals and to clear the infected tissue. These are called reamers, files and are available in various dimensions.
- Files of suitable sizes are used for mechanical cleaning and shaping of the canals. The files used can vary from 0.06 mm to 2 mm in diameter. To give you an idea, the thickness of human hair varies from 0.02 mm to 0.2 mm, so a dental file is finer than a thick strand of human hair.
- Irrigating solutions help to dissolve and flush out the tissue and toxins of organisms.
- These solutions aid in chemical cleaning of the canals.
- Thus at the end of the Root Canal Treatment procedure, we ensure that the tooth is free from any infection, the abscess if any has been completely drained out and the canals are in the desired conical shape to receive canal filling.
Now the tooth is filled with a material called gutta-percha (derived from a tree of the same name) which is specifically designed to fill root canals. This filling denies the entry of microorganisms into the root canals and bone around the tooth in future. Thus the infected tooth is back in action and continues to serve you for long time.
