{"id":167,"date":"2015-11-04T15:34:53","date_gmt":"2015-11-04T15:34:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.landmark-dental-group.com\/blog\/?p=167"},"modified":"2016-07-24T22:55:32","modified_gmt":"2016-07-25T05:55:32","slug":"root-canals-dont-have-to-be-painful","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.landmark-dental-group.com\/blog\/root-canals-dont-have-to-be-painful\/","title":{"rendered":"Root Canals Don\u2019t Have to Be Painful"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_168\" style=\"width: 510px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.landmark-dental-group.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/root-canal-appointment-230.jpg\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-168\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-168 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/www.landmark-dental-group.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/root-canal-appointment-230.jpg\" alt=\"root canal appointment\" width=\"500\" height=\"333\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.landmark-dental-group.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/root-canal-appointment-230.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.landmark-dental-group.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/root-canal-appointment-230-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-168\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">photo credit: Dollar Photo Club<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Just like other parts of your body, teeth can become infected. In the past, the only real option was to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.landmark-dental-group.com\/services\/extractions\" target=\"_blank\">extract the tooth<\/a>. Root canal treatment, however, made it possible for dentists to save those infected teeth. Unfortunately, many people hear the term \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.landmark-dental-group.com\/services\/root-canal-therapy\" target=\"_blank\">root canal<\/a>\u201d and run the other direction in fear because root canal treatment has the\u00a0reputation of\u00a0being painful. That couldn\u2019t be farther from the truth; <strong>root canal therapy is designed to alleviate your pain and save your tooth<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Infections Are Painful, Not Root Canals<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>The appearance of pus is the body&#8217;s\u00a0immune system response to an infection, and it is no different with a tooth infection. When you have a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.webmd.com\/oral-health\/guide\/abscessed-tooth\" target=\"_blank\">tooth abscess<\/a>, the\u00a0pus that is present\u00a0puts pressure on the tooth and the nerves. If you\u2019re lucky, you may not have any pain, but in many cases, people suffering from a tooth infection are in serious, agonizing pain. <strong>This pain is present\u00a0well before any root canal therapy is done.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Whether or not you\u2019re in pain\u00a0you must seek treatment,\u00a0because even though it may seem minor, a tooth infection is still an infection and can lead to more serious complications if left untreated. The only methods of treating a tooth infection are extraction and root canal treatment. <strong>Root canal treatment is the only way to save the tooth.<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"color: #000000;\">You\u2019re Numb During the Procedure<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>People have a lot of fear about going to the dentist, and years ago, it was understandable. Local anesthetics didn\u2019t exist, and once they did, they were rarely used. This made people avoid going to the dentist because they could feel everything that was being done inside their mouth. Now, however, the dentist uses local anesthetic for any treatment that may irritate the pulp, and that includes\u00a0root canal treatment.<\/p>\n<p>During a root canal treatment, <strong>the area is numb, so you shouldn\u2019t feel a thing.<\/strong> Because the dentist has to clean all the way down to the tip of the roots, you may need more anesthetic than a normal filling, but your dentist can make sure the area is nice and numb before proceeding. <strong>The truth is that root canal treatment does not create pain,<\/strong> but rather stops the pain\u00a0because it gets rid of the infection.<\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Root Canal Treatment Removes the Tooth Pulp<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Root canal treatment involves removing the pulp from the center of the tooth, which contains blood vessels, nerves and connective tissue. Once the pulp and infection are gone, the dentist fills the empty root space with a material called <span data-scaytid=\"1\" data-scayt_word=\"gutta-percha\">gutta-percha<\/span>, places a filling and covers the tooth with a crown to strengthen it and prevent the tooth from fracturing.<\/p>\n<p>After the procedure, there may be a minor amount of\u00a0discomfort, but this can be easily managed\u00a0with over-the-counter anti-inflammatory pain medications, or your dentist may prescribe stronger pain medication.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Root canal treatment is not as scary as people think.<\/strong> It is a common procedure and a major advancement in dentistry that prevents and\/or reduces pain and saves the tooth. If you would like more information about root canal treatment, contact Landmark Dental Group today.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.landmark-dental-group.com\/contact\/\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-384 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/www.landmark-dental-group.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/Landmark-Dental-Group-Santa-Cruz.png\" alt=\"Landmark Dental Group Contact | Santa Cruz\" width=\"428\" height=\"49\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.landmark-dental-group.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/Landmark-Dental-Group-Santa-Cruz.png 428w, https:\/\/www.landmark-dental-group.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/Landmark-Dental-Group-Santa-Cruz-300x34.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 428px) 100vw, 428px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Just like other parts of your body, teeth can become infected. In the past, the only real option was to extract the tooth. Root canal treatment, however, made it possible for dentists to save those infected teeth. Unfortunately, many people hear the term \u201croot canal\u201d and run the other direction in fear because root canal [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[32],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.landmark-dental-group.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.landmark-dental-group.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.landmark-dental-group.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.landmark-dental-group.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.landmark-dental-group.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=167"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.landmark-dental-group.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":498,"href":"https:\/\/www.landmark-dental-group.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167\/revisions\/498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.landmark-dental-group.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.landmark-dental-group.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.landmark-dental-group.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}