4 Telltale Signs You Need a Root Canal

If you have pain, discomfort, or swelling around a tooth, it could be because of damaged root pulp. You could have such damage for many different reasons, and it can leave the interior of your tooth vulnerable to infection.

At Bayside Dental Arts in Queens, New York, Dr. Andrey Ilyabayev and our team provide root canal procedures to help you keep your tooth and avoid unnecessary extraction. Here are the early signs you should watch for that could mean you need a root canal.

What’s inside your tooth

The outer shell of your tooth is called enamel, and the interior layer is dentin. The top is the crown of your tooth, and the parts anchored in your jawbone are the roots.

Inside the roots and reaching up into the crown is your tooth pulp. This is a jelly-like mass of connective tissue, blood vessels, and nerve endings, housed in what is called the root canal. When tooth pulp is infected or inflamed, it can put pressure in nerve endings and cause intense symptoms.

4 signs you may need a root canal

There are many signs you may need a root canal procedure, but these are the four most common:

Pain

If you have pain that feels like it reaches down into your jawbone or makes the entire side of your face hurt, you could have a tooth pulp infection. The pain might come and go, but keeps returning.

Sensitivity

Severe sensitivity to cold, heat, and pressure is another telltale sign of a problem with tooth pulp. Irritated or inflamed tooth pulp can swell, putting pressure on nerve endings and sensitizing your entire tooth.

Swelling

Swelling of the gum tissue around a painful tooth is a strong sign of a tooth pulp infection. There might even be an opening near the base of the tooth that oozes pus from a spreading infection.

Throbbing

If your tooth pulp is badly inflamed, you may feel a rhythmic throbbing inside your tooth. Most people describe this as feeling their heartbeat in their tooth.

The root canal procedure

Dr. Ilyabayev completes your root canal in just two visits. During the first visit, he numbs the area, opens the tooth by making a small hole in the crown, and scrapes out all of the infected tooth pulp.

Then he fills the root canal with a sterile substance called gutta-percha to seal it from bacteria and infection. Finally, he takes a mold of your tooth and sends it to our lab, which fabricates a customized crown to match your original tooth.  

On the second visit, Dr. Ilyabayev places the crown to complete your tooth restoration. The sterilization of the inside of the tooth should prevent infection from recurring, and you’ll keep your tooth for years to come.

Do you think you have an infected root canal? Don’t hesitate to schedule an appointment at our Bayside, New York, office. To get in touch, call us at 315-908-0804 or book online to get more information.