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Root Canal Gallery
You might not understand why there are "root canal" cases in the Smile Gallery but it is easy to explain. If the nerve of a tooth gets infected, you will not be smiling because it can be a very uncomfortable sensation. Most of the discomfort associated with root canal treatment is the discomfort you feel before having any treatment. The goal of root canal treatment is to get you out of pain, and to get you smiling again!
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Root Canal Gallery by
What a root canal attempts to do is remove the diseased tissues (indicated by the yellow arrow), which contains the nerve and blood supply of a tooth, with a rubber type material. The area that is filled is called the "root canal." The root canal of each tooth is very different. The reason this tooth needed a root canal was due to decay (indicated by the white arrow) entering the pulp.
This is what the completed root canal looks like on an x-ray. This tooth had three canals, which you can see by the white filling material in the root portion of the tooth.
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Root Canal Gallery - Accessory Canals by
This is an example of a back tooth that developed a cyst, which is shown by the dark area around the tip of the root. A root canal was performed and you can see some of the root canal filling material in the dark area, which represents an accessory canal. The prognosis for this tooth is good because the accessory canal was found and filled.
This is another example of an accessory canal in a back tooth. This canal, which is shown by the arrow, was rather large. The prognosis for this tooth is also good because the accessory canal was found and filled.
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Root Canal Gallery - Large Canals by
Most of the canals, where the nerve and blood vessels of the tooth reside, are narrow like the wick in a candle. Some canals are very wide, which is shown in this x-ray of a front tooth. All this means is that there is less tooth structure surrounding the canal, which can mean the tooth is weaker than if the canal were narrower.
The tooth on the right is what we typically expect to see in regard to a normal root canal anatomy, which for this tooth is three separate canals. The tooth on the left has only one single canal, which is why the filling material appears so wide. The internal anatomy of each tooth is different, which makes each root canal procedure unique.
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Root Canal Gallery - Successful Root Canal by
This is an x-ray of a back tooth known as a molar, which was taken immediately after root canal treatment. The arrow is pointing to a dark area, which is the sign of an infection.
This x-ray was taken approximately one year after the root canal treatment. Notice that the dark area has filled in with bone, which tells us that the root canal was successful. The large white area on the top portion of the tooth is a crown, which is required treatment for almost all back teeth that have a root canal.
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Root Canal Gallery Successful Root Canal by
The dark area around the entire root of the tooth above indicates the presence of a large infection.
Conventional root canal treatment was performed and this is an x-ray of the tooth about six months later. You can see the dark infected area has disappeared and has been replaced by healthy bone structure. The prognosis for this tooth is excellent.