A root canal is a treatment to repair and save
a badly damaged or infected tooth. The procedure involves removing the damaged area of
the tooth (the pulp), cleaning and disinfecting it and then filling and sealing it. The
common causes affecting the pulp are a cracked tooth, a deep cavity, repeated dental
treatment to the tooth or trauma. The term "root canal" comes from cleaning of the
canals inside the tooth's root.
Endodontic therapy or root canal therapy is a
sequence of treatment for the infected pulp of a tooth which results in the elimination
of infection and the protection of the decontaminated tooth from future microbial
invasion. Root canals, and their associated pulp chamber, are the physical hollows
within a tooth that are naturally inhabited by nerve tissue, blood vessels and other
cellularentities. Together, these items constitute the dental pulp.Endodontic therapy
involves the removal of these structures, the subsequent shaping, cleaning, and
decontamination of the hollows with small files and irrigating solutions, and the
obturation (filling) of the decontaminated canals. Filling of the cleaned and
decontaminated canals is done with an inert filling such as gutta-percha and typically a
eugenol-based cement.Epoxy resin is employed to bind gutta-percha in some root canal
procedures.Endodontics includes both primary and secondary endodontic treatments as well
as periradicular surgery which is generally used for teeth that still have potential for
salvage