When, usually due to deep caries, the dental pulp (that set of small blood vessels and nerves inside the crown and the roots of the tooth) irritates, the patient feels a very intense pain (pulpitis). If the pulp is subsequently infected with bacteria, pulpal necrosis occurs.
The pulpitis must be promptly treated to stop the violent pain it causes to the patient; the pulpal necrosis, even if it does not cause pain, must be promptly treated because it is a chronic infection that can get worst (apical granuloma) and that is harmful to the body.
The therapy for these two pathological situations is the same and consists of removing both the pulp contained in the crown and that contained in the root canal and replacing it with an inert and biocompatible material. This clinical act is called canal or devitalization therapy. Since the technique involves removing the pulp, but also shaping, sterilising and filling the root canal and since these operations must be carried out in an environment isolated from saliva and bacteria in the oral cavity, it is necessary to always use (unless the patient’s clinical problems do not allow it) a rubber sheet, called a dam, supported by a small frame surrounding the crown of the tooth and isolating it from the oral cavity.
Canal therapy is a painless treatment, but it takes quite a long time in proportion to the number and shape of the channels that are present in the tooth to be treated.
The endodontics that the Santoro dental practice offers to its patients involves the use of the most sophisticated techniques and the most appropriate instruments (dental dam, apex detector, instruments rotating with nickel-titanium, means of magnification of vision) so that the therapies have the best characteristics of efficacy and duration over time.
