Toothache?
Are you experiencing pain or sensitivity when you eat or drink? Do you
notice a hole in your tooth?
Tooth decay (dental caries) is one of the most common dental disease. It
is caused by bacteria which converts sugar from food and drinks into
acids that dissolve tooth enamel and dentine over time. Slowly, the
tooth integrity is weakened, and finally collapses into a hole or
cavity. Imagine a cave with its roof collapsing!
Often, tooth decay can be arrested before pain or sensitivity begins.
When the tooth decay is shallow and the nerves are not affected, a
simple filling/restoration will suffice. However, when tooth decay is
left to progress, it becomes deeper until it reaches the nerve/pulp of
the tooth. This results in tooth infection and pain. These teeth will
then most likely require either root canal treatment or extraction to
remove the infection.
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Root Canal Treatment
This is a procedure performed to save your painful or infected tooth. The treatment, done under local anaesthesia, disinfects the insides of the tooth while preserving the tooth. The pain will eventually subside as the infection is removed. Although you will be able to keep the tooth, the tooth is now greatly weakened structurally. Thus, in most cases, the tooth will require a post and core together with a crown to reinforce it and prevent premature fracture.
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