Why do root canals get damaged?

Once the root canal system is cleaned out and shaped, it is filled with a special root canal obstruction material. PHOTO | SHUTTERSTOCK

Root canal is often the choice whenever a tooth causes serious pain to an individual. The tooth may hurt for one of many different reasons as follows.

1. There is very deep, extensive tooth decay that has affected the nerve.

2. There is a large, extensive filling in that tooth that may have been there for a long time.

3. The tooth was recently traumatised by a blow of some kind.

4. Accumulated dental treatment to the tooth that has caused the nerve to react.

Whatever the reason, to all practical purposes, if a tooth causes ongoing pain, the nerve should probably be removed, and root canal treatment is the way to do that.

Once the root canal system is cleaned out and shaped, it is filled with a special root canal obstruction material.

Reasons why root treated teeth often break

The fact is that a healthy nerve supplies water via blood supply to the dentin of the tooth. Once the nerve is no longer there, the tooth has water supply and becomes brittle, and the brittleness increases over time.

Root canal treated teeth substantially have less tooth structure, this makes it easy to see how a sudden bite on something hard could cause the tooth to fracture. Often, a root canal treated tooth fractures such that it cannot be restored, and must be extracted. Neither the dentist nor the patient wants that to happen. 

How to prevent root canal treated teeth against fracturing.

The best preventive way against fracture, that we have at the present time is a full crown of the tooth.

A crown can be made of different materials. Sometimes, full metal crowns are placed. But today, we can make crowns of tooth using coloured ceramic materials that look, feel and function like real teeth. These are just examples of what can be done. Visit your dentist for more information.

Everyone deserves to have natural looking, and healthy teeth. Modern dentistry can do pretty amazing things.