How to Care for Your Tooth After Root Canal Treatment: Tips and Advice

Root canals are standard procedures that help eliminate infections from a tooth to improve your oral health. In addition, the process helps relieve the excruciating pain you experience from a decayed, damaged, or broken tooth.

Although millions of root canals are performed annually by dentists, this procedure retains its fearsome reputation as a therapy better avoided because of the discomfort it causes. Plenty of misconceptions exist about root canal therapy near you, claiming the consequences of the treatment are alarming. In reality, the therapy eliminates severe tooth pain and potential tooth loss if left untreated. Therefore if you are recommended a root canal, kindly receive the treatment to prevent unnecessary expenditure on replacing a missing tooth.

Root canals are a painful therapy, but you feel no discomfort when undergoing the treatment. The dentist in Atlanta provides after-care instructions to care for your tooth after treatment. Caring for your tooth after undergoing intensive therapy is essential to ensure you eliminate dental pain and recover without complications in the minimum time possible.

How to Care for Your Tooth After Root Canal?

• Taking Medications As Prescribed: You experience no pain or discomfort when the dentist works in your mouth to remove the infected dental pulp inside your tooth. The dentist provides anesthesia to help eliminate any pain expected from a root canal. However, the anesthesia wears off four to six hours after your procedure when you start experiencing pain from the therapy but not the infection in the tooth because the dentist eliminates it. Dentists prescribe pain medications to help relieve the pain from a root canal. You can help alleviate dental pain by taking the prescribed medicines as suggested without skipping doses.
• Avoid Chewing on the Treated Tooth: after receiving root canal therapy in Atlanta, GA, you don’t need to starve by refraining from foods. On the contrary, you must ensure you feed yourself nutritionally using soft foods and liquids but avoid chewing with the treated tooth for fear of dislodging the temporary filling the dentist places in the tooth to close the access hole created when performing the root canal. Instead, you can rely on foods like yogurt, applesauce, smoothies, scrambled eggs, and others that don’t require chewing but help give your body the nutrition necessary to assist with your recovery.
• Practice Good Oral Hygiene: Brushing and flossing are fundamental when caring for your teeth. Therefore you must practice good oral hygiene even after a root canal. It is optimal to keep the treated tooth clean to prevent further infections. However, it would help to remain careful near the treated tooth to prevent irritation. Ensure you use gentle strokes when brushing your teeth. Avoid over-the-counter mouthwash brands containing alcohol because they can interact with your medications to delay or slow your recovery.
• Attend Follow-Up Appointments: If the dentist near you suggests a follow-up appointment to assess the condition of your tooth, kindly report to them on the scheduled date to ensure your recovery is progressing without complications. The follow-up appointments will help the dentist assess your recovery and guide you on the best way to restore your tooth after you recover.
• Rest and Relax: Root canals are intensive and require you to rest and relax on the day you receive your treatment and, a couple of days later, help your body recover from the procedure. Resting is essential for the body to repair itself. While you don’t have to remain bedridden, you must avoid strenuous activities like exercising, lifting heavy objects, or visiting gyms to prevent bleeding from the tooth to invite additional dental problems during your recovery.
• Report Any Concerns to Your Dentist: dental procedures such as root canals are not the most comfortable. You will likely feel tingling and discomfort in the treated area for approximately 72 hours. While the pain medications prescribed by the dentist help alleviate discomfort and prepare you to restore the tooth, you may confront challenges occasionally and find them concerning. In such cases, you should report your concerns to the Atlanta dentist to ensure they evaluate the problem and help you take remedial measures to prevent aggravation.

Following the dentist’s after-care instructions is the optimal way to care for your tooth after receiving intensive therapy. After you recover, you can contact your regular dentist to restore the tooth with a dental crown, making it appear like your remaining teeth by restoring its strength, size, appearance, and functionality. Besides helping prevent extraction of the infected tooth, root canal treatment enables you to enjoy its functionality for many years without needing similar treatments again if you maintain excellent dental hygiene and receive six monthly dental cleanings from your dentist.

3640 Dental performs many root canals on patients providing 98 percent successful results. However, if you are experiencing excruciating pain in a specific tooth, kindly contact them to determine whether you need a root canal and receive treatment from them with proper after-care injections to recover without complications.