A dentist that does root canals and endodontic retreatment to save teeth in Conyers, Georgia

When a tooth is severely damaged, root canal therapy is often the only way to save the natural tooth and prevent the need for the costly and time-consuming process of extracting and replacing the tooth with an artificial tooth. While some general dentists perform root canal therapy, it can be hard to find a specialized dentist that does root canals on a daily basis and with whom you can entrust the long-term health of your tooth. At Conyers Endodontic Center in Conyers, GA, our team of endodontists specialize in performing root canal therapy and, if needed, retreatment of a root canal-treated tooth that is failing.

Root canal therapy explained

As dentists, our primary goal is to help you keep all of your natural teeth healthy for a lifetime of great smiles and oral health. While dental technologies and materials have come a long way in recent decades, natural teeth simply function, feel, and look better than any tooth-replacement option. When decay, disease, or injury has left the interior portion of a tooth (the pulp) severely damaged or infected, root canal therapy is the best way to preserve the natural tooth, so it does not need to be extracted and replaced. While root canal treatment has a bad reputation for being painful, it is a pain-relieving procedure that can help get you back to your daily life without pain and discomfort.

Root canal therapy consists of the following steps:

• Numbing the area that will be treated, so you are comfortable and pain-free throughout your treatment
• Creating a small hole in the top of the affected tooth so that the dentist can access the interior portion of the tooth
• Removing the infected, diseased pulp and nerve from the tooth and sanitizing it to remove any lingering bacteria
• Filling the tooth with a material called gutta-percha, which is rubber-like and helps prevent re-infection of the tooth
• Placing a tooth-colored crown on top of the tooth to seal and protect it from future damage

When root canal retreatment may be needed

While root canal therapy has an excellent success rate and most patients have no issues with their root canal-treated teeth for the rest of their lives, there are some instances where a tooth that has had root canal therapy starts becoming painful again or needs to be re-treated. This can occur due to a variety of factors, such as improper healing from the procedure, undetected canals that weren’t initially treated, incomplete sanitization of the canals, and under-or over-filling the treated tooth. If you have had a root canal and the tooth is starting to be painful, swollen, or discolored, we can evaluate the tooth to determine if root canal retreatment is necessary. If it is, we will remove the materials that were used to seal off the tooth during the initial treatment and use specialized tools to identify any problem areas such as additional canals or tooth structure complexities that need to be addressed. We will then treat the infection, shape and sterilize the canals, and place new filling materials to seal and protect the tooth.

At Conyers Endodontic Center, we are committed to helping you achieve a healthy, pain-free smile that lasts. Call our Conyers, GA office at (470) 486-6025 to schedule your appointment or request a consultation online.

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