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Underneath your tooth’s outer enamel and within the dentine is an area of soft tissue called the pulp. This contains the tooth’s nerves, lymph and blood vessels. Root canals are very small, thin divisions that branch off from the top pulp chamber down to the tip of the root. A tooth has at least one but no more than 4 root canals.
Deep tooth decay, or an injury, can cause serious damage and infection to the pulp’s nerves and vessels. If this is left untreated an abscess could spread to the area outside of the tooth, bone around the tooth may degenerate, causing tooth loss.
Once the pulp in infected, the options for treatment are either: Root Canal Treatment or extraction.
Root canal, or endodontic treatment, cleans out the infected pulp chamber and repairs the damage so the tooth can be saved. Early indication that root canal treatment may be necessary include:
- Increased sensitivity to hot and cool foods
- Severe decay or an injury that creates an abscess (infection) in the bone
- Spontaneous pain or throbbing while biting
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Root canal procedure
We take every care ensuring a comfortable procedure. The majority of people who have undergone root canal treatment typically report that the process itself is no more involved than having a filling placed.
Root canal treatment eliminates nerve problems and abscesses and avoids tooth extraction, and is far more cost effective in the long term.
We have an Endodontist based at our Cambridge practice, and our practitioners can refer for more complex root canal treatments.
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