5 Root Canal Treatment alternatives

Root canal Treatment (RCT) is a minor surgical procedure and it is recommended when a severely infected tooth requires internal repairing.

When an untreated cavity goes beneath the tooth’s outer covering, it infects the unmineralized oral tissue called “Pulp Chamber” that carries the soft connective tissues, nervous and lymphatic elements. 

Treating such root cavity includes several steps, beginning with drilling the diseased tooth, extracting the infected pulp, refilling the root canal with gutta-percha material and then the tooth is enveloped with a dental crown. This procedure is not such a painful thing, unlike many people thought as the endodontic treatment is performed under local anesthesia.

Apart from Root Canal Therapy, various endodontic treatment procedures are here to sustain a seriously infected tooth. Our Root Canal Specialists n Tirunelveli have explained those root canal alternatives here.

1) Apicoectomy

Apicoectomy is also known as root end surgery because it involves accessing the tip of the tooth root region. If the dentists discover infection or diseased canals there, then the apex (tip of the root) is removed and the region is sealed.

This procedure is required at times when there is an infection in the root canal filled tooth. Similar to RCT, it is also completed within 30 to 90 minutes. Common discomforts like soreness and swelling after the treatment and they subside over time.

2) Endodontic Retreatment

Endodontic retreatment involves reopening the root canal filled tooth and perform the procedure once again to clean the infection. This is quite uncommon but necessary when the treated tooth exhibits intense pain for months following the treatment.

This occurs because of one of the following reasons:

• Complicated canal anatomy cannot be cleaned properly in the initial procedure.

• Salivary contamination inside the tooth.

Moreover, cracks or cavities developed in the tooth surface, loose fillings or weakened crowns also intensify the infection and escalate pain in the tooth.

3) Ozone Gas

Researches have shown ozone gas is effective to pervade the tubules inside the teeth. Hence it is applied in endodontic treatments to kill bacteria in the root canals. In certain cases, the ozone gas is enough to clean the pulp chamber and assure the tooth is free from infection. Moreover, it eliminates the problem of expelling the affected portion of the teeth.

However, this practice is not recommended in most cases because teeth cleaned with ozone gas are susceptible to develop infections in the coming years. This pushes the sufferer to receive RCT again.

4) Internal Bleaching

In general, a severely decayed tooth appears darker. It happens due to the lack of tooth’s natural functionalities because of dying nerves. Internal bleaching is an endodontic procedure that intends restoring the tooth’s natural color while disinfecting the root canal.

As the staining is internal, the endodontist places a whitening material inside the tooth after extracting the diseased nerves and tissues. The whitening substance will dissolve the discolorations in the problematic tooth.

5) Calcium Hydroxide

This endodontic treatment approach is similar to treating the root cavity with ozone gas. In this procedure, the root canal is irrigated with calcium hydroxide to kill bacteria and remove diseased tissues inside. However, it is also not highly recommended due to the concentration of toxic compounds in the gas.

Bottom line

Gone are the days, removing the decayed teeth and restoring with dental bridges or dental implants. The advancements in dentistry have brought major evolutions in tooth preservation treatments we are providing.

Besides the root canal treatment approaches we have described here, procedures like direct pulp capping which was not successful in the past years have also been enhanced with the modern technologies and are suggested in certain cases

To know more about Endodontic treatments and get the best root canal treatment in Tirunelveli, communicate with us today.