What is Endodontics?
Endodontics is the sub-field of dentistry which studies, prevents and treats the tooth pulp and the tissues surrounding the root of a tooth. It is popularly known as “root treatment”.
What is Endodontics?
Endodontics is the sub-field of dentistry which studies, prevents and treats the tooth pulp and the tissues surrounding the root of a tooth. It is popularly known as “root treatment”.
Who is the Endodontist?
Endodontists are dentists who have specialized in Endodontics (root treatment) and are able to diagnose, treat and periodically follow all the alterations which occur in the interior of the dental element; he also offers the patients all the biotechnological resources available in order to fight the alterations inside these teeth (pulp, nerves, blood veins and tissues surrounding the roots), aiming to restore the normality of the tissues surrounding the tooth.
What is the pulp?
Pulp is the conjunctive tissue strongly innervated and vascularized, protected by and found inside the tooth, having the function of formation, nutrition, defense and sensation.
What is the endodontic treatment?
It is a procedure to remove the pulp of the tooth, which may be healthy or infected and, after the removal, to substitute it by an obturating material.
Is it necessary to perform an endodontic treatment every time the tooth hurts?
No. But the teeth may hurt because of any uncommon stimulus: intense cold or heat, sweet or sour. These symptoms are observed in teeth with caries, with gum recession or which are under an intense masticatory load (occlusion trauma). In these cases, when the cause is taken out the hurting ends.
Endodontics is one of the Dentistry specialties which prevents and cures infirmities in the dental pulp.
In cases of endodontic treatment it is necessary to remove the soft tissues called pulp when it is infected and there is a substitution for obturating material.
Besides the root canal treatment, endodontics establishes normality to pulp tissues by the means of pulp curettage, pulpotomy, pulpectomy or surgical treatment.
If the needed endodontic treatment is not performed, the tooth may have a root infection and this condition might be spread to the surrounding tissues, and an invasion of bacteria in to the blood flow (bacteremy) is possible to happen, causing pain, swelling, fever and drain of the collection of pus intra or extra orally.
Endodontics is the sub-field of dentistry which studies, prevents and treats the tooth pulp and the tissues surrounding the root of a tooth. It is popularly known as “root treatment”.
Endodontists are dentists who have specialized in Endodontics (root treatment) and are able to diagnose, treat and periodically follow all the alterations which occur in the interior of the dental element; he also offers the patients all the biotechnological resources available in order to fight the alterations inside these teeth (pulp, nerves, blood veins and tissues surrounding the roots), aiming to restore the normality of the tissues surrounding the tooth.
Pulp is the conjunctive tissue strongly innervated and vascularized, protected by and found inside the tooth, having the function of formation, nutrition, defense and sensation.
It is a procedure to remove the pulp of the tooth, which may be healthy or infected and, after the removal, to substitute it by an obturating material.
No. But the teeth may hurt because of any uncommon stimulus: intense cold or heat, sweet or sour. These symptoms are observed in teeth with caries, with gum recession or which are under an intense masticatory load (occlusion trauma). In these cases, when the cause is taken out the hurting ends.
There are many causes, among them we have: caries, coronary fractures (tooth crown), abrasion, periodontal pockets, certain endocrinous disturbances among others, which may lead to irreversible pulp lesions, having as a consequence the need of an orthodontic intervention.
In the acute cases, spontaneous pain, in a latent way, which are worsened by heat and do not cease with the use of painkillers. In more advanced stages of the inflammation, the pain can spread to more distant regions, being difficult to distinguish which is the affected tooth.
In the chronic cases, however, the symptoms are not present or are not characterized, and the discovery of an injured tooth is the result of periodic routine examinations with the dentist.
Due to different inflammatory stages of the pulp, the only one who is capable of correctly diagnosing the pulp lesion through the anamnesis (history of the case), the physical examination, thermal tests and radiographic analysis, and then decide if the endodontic treatment is necessary or not.
Yes, usually when in the first treatment it was not possible to follow the standards required, such as: cleaning (removal of the microorganisms), hermetic filling of the root with obturating material, etc. These flaws may lead to modifications in the periapex, such as, abscesses and chronic lesions.
No, because all the support to this tooth is still alive: bone, periodontal ligament (fibers which fixes the tooth to the bone) and cement (layer which covers the roots). What is inconvenient is that, as the pulp gives sensitivity to the tooth, if the same tooth is attacked by caries, it will not be perceived due to the lack of feeling of pain.
No. What happens is the loss of shine, so the tooth seems to have a yellowish color. The acute darkening only happens when there is a hemorrhage in the tooth or even a pulp necrosis before the treatment.
A lesion in the apical region may develop (root infection in the surrounding tissues), which may lead to more serious consequences, such as acute pain, swelling, fever and bacteremia (bacteria in the blood stream), causing the loss of the tooth as well as contributing to the occurrence of systemic pathologies.