Brushing and flossing twice daily are essential to keeping your mouth clean to prevent common dental problems like tooth decay, gum disease, and injuries. However, it’s still possible to have a dental emergency even if you maintain a rigorous at-home oral hygiene routine.
For instance, you could develop a sudden or severe toothache or an overly damaged chomper that hurts when used. Your dentist can offer emergency services, like a root canal or an extraction, to improve your condition, but how do you know which treatment is right for you? Continue reading to learn more about each to make an informed decision!
What’s Involved in a Root Canal?
Although tooth-colored fillings are usually used to fix cavities, sometimes a tooth is too far gone to be effectively repaired this way. In these cases, root canals are the tried-and-true solution for addressing sore or infected teeth. Before starting your procedure, your dentist will provide a local anesthetic to numb the area. Many also offer medications, like oral conscious sedation, to keep you comfortable throughout your appointment.
Then, they create a small opening in your enamel and use specialized instruments to gently remove injured or diseased material before sanitizing your pearly white to kill remaining bacteria. Next, they seal it closed to keep germs out, and then provide a dental crown to shield it while restoring its functionality. This allows them to preserve your natural teeth in circumstances that might otherwise require an extraction.
How Do Extractions Work?
Many patients wonder if an extraction would be easier, cheaper, or more convenient, but the truth is that removing teeth comes with additional risks you might not be aware of. For instance, did you know your jawbone thins after tooth loss? Without a root to stimulate new bone growth, you can lose up to 25% of the surrounding mass when one is removed.
Not only that, but your mouth is full of bacteria that can penetrate the extraction site to cause an additional infection, which might require more costly and complex treatments to resolve. Extractions are usually reserved as a last resort, when a pearly white is too severely decayed or damaged to be addressed effectively with other options, like tooth-colored fillings or root canals.
Which Option Is Best For Me?
It’s natural to have questions about the best method of addressing your toothache. If you’re still uncertain which option best meets your needs, the next best step is to consult your dentist. They’ll examine your current condition and make recommendations based on their findings to address your troublesome tooth while preserving your oral health.
Whichever treatment you undergo, you’ll soon be on your way to recovering a pain-free smile!
About the Practice
At Healthy Smiles Dental Care of Barton City, you benefit from a team of dentists with decades of experience helping people of all ages improve their lives by enhancing their dental health. They work collaboratively to provide a comprehensive menu of services, including root canals and extractions, to meet all your needs at one location. They also provide oral conscious sedation so that if you’re hurting, you don’t have to wait for relief. Then, they utilize state-of-the-art technology to quickly identify problem areas and devise customized treatment plans tailored to you. If you have a toothache, you can request an appointment on the website or call (989) 736-7000.