I feel pain in my root canal

Root canal treatment is the removal of a thread-like tissue in the centre of the tooth.

Dear Dentist, one of my molar teeth was worked on three months ago but I still feel pain yet it was a root canal treatment. Why am I still feeling pain? What could be the problem?
George, Mukono

Root canal treatment is the removal of the tooth’s pulp, a small, thread-like tissue in the centre of the tooth. Once the damaged, diseased or dead pulp is removed, then the remaining space is cleaned, shaped and filled. This procedure seals off the root canal. Ideally, one should not feel pain after such a procedure, but on rare occasions, this may happen.

How root canal treatment is done
Root canal treatment consists of several steps. A patient will always need two to three visits to the dentist to complete the treatment. The number of visits will depend on how the tooth responds to treatment. Compliance to treatment and following the dentist’s instructions is key when providing this treatment. Once you fail to follow the instructions, failure or delayed healing is expected.
Once root canal treatment is done successfully, with complete compliance to the doctor’s instructions, you will never get toothache on that particular tooth.

What may cause pain?
Failure of a patient to take drugs as prescribed by the dentist, and the patient fails to notify the dentist that the medicine was not taken.
Failure of a patient to complete all the required visits.
Treatment being provided by inexperienced dental health service provider or a person masquerading as a dental care professional. This is very common especially in rural area clinics. This may lead to failure to identify all roots of the tooth or use of materials that are not recommended. The service provider may also be a dentist who has taken long without carrying out such a procedure. Dentistry is hands-on, requiring regular practice of all procedures or treatment being provided.
Too much infection. This happens when a tooth was meant for extraction (removing) but one insisted on having a root canal performed.

Completion of the procedure in one visit.
In your case, if your dentist is still accessible, he or she can review your tooth, do an x-ray and have proper treatment given again.
Patients are always encouraged to seek such kind of treatment from registered dental health professionals whose certificates are well displayed on the waiting area, if appropriate services are to be obtained.
However, it is also important for patients to strictly observe appointments with the dentist for this kind of treatment.

The writer is a dentist
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