FAQ

Your dentist believes you may have a tooth that has an injured nerve.  The best way to save the tooth and restore it to health is a root canal (endodontic therapy).  Root canals are complex and can be difficult to properly treat.  Your dentist would like a specialist to treat you to improve the chances of a favorable outcome.

An endodontist is a dentist who has undergone additional years of education and focused training to learn about the theories and mechanics of root canal therapy.  Root canals are all we do–all day, every day.  After having done thousands of them we’re pretty good at what we do.

If the nerve inside a tooth is damaged it will eventually die (if it hasn’t already) and can cause pain and/or swelling.  There are two ways to address this issue–root canal therapy or extraction.  A root canal is the only way to save the tooth.

A root canal procedure is the removal of the nerve and disinfection of the tooth to prevent or resolve bacterial infection.  We use both mechanical and chemical means to accomplish this.  Once the tooth has been thoroughly cleaned we seal the tooth with biocompatible materials.

The average treatment time is between 1 and 1.5 hours.  Difficult or infected teeth may take longer, and on occasion may require a second visit (rarely, a third or fourth).

We do our very best to keep you as comfortable as possible and in the great majority of cases it does not hurt.  It’s usually no worse than getting a filling.  You may be surprised to hear that a lot of people fall asleep during the procedure.