Your dental care is an extremely vital aspect of your healthcare. A bad tooth can make you have extended periods of discomfort if you do not get it fixed.
If your tooth is badly damaged and perhaps can’t be repaired, you’ll need to consult your dentist fortitude valley, for its care and replacement. Before we consider how to fix your dead tooth, here are some things you should know about a dead tooth.
Table of Contents
When is a Tooth considered Dead?
A tooth is diagnosed as dead when there is an obstructive or cut-out blood flow to it for a period long enough to lose its function. Another term dentists use to describe a dead tooth is ‘non-vital tooth.’ This implies the non-functionality of the particular tooth.
What can cause Tooth Death?
Direct trauma and decay are the predominant causes of lethal damage to a tooth.
- In tooth decay, the process begins outwards towards the inner layers and cavities of the tooth. The existence of decay causes and introduces several bacteria and germs into your oral cavity. Peculiar to a decayed tooth, continuous decay erodes several layers, riding them off their nerve supply, eventually causing such a tooth to die.
- On the other hand, indirect tooth trauma, it’s more or less a one-time event. Unlike the gradual decay process, tooth trauma possibly caused by accidents and injuries immediately cause a burst of blood supply in the area affected. This ultimately leads also to a non-vital tooth.
Signs and Symptoms that you have a Dead Tooth
There are two basic signs signaling a dead tooth. They are: pain, unpleasant smell, and the tooth’s color change
Pain
Most discomfort associated with the tooth is because of its pain. For an already dead or dying tooth, the pain levels differ. It can range from excruciating to zero pain.
You might find it surprising to experience pain from a dead nerve site. Unless the pain isn’t from within the tooth, the dead nerve only supplied the dead tooth. Here, the pain you are experiencing is from the nerve endings around the tooth. This site is called the periodontal membrane.
Unpleasant smell
A dead tooth often smells abnormal. Usually, it’s always unpleasant. This is due to the build-up of bacterial actions in this tooth.
Change in the color of your Tooth
A dead tooth most often darkens. However, there might be variations. It could also be gray, brown, or yellow. This usually occurs due to the death of the red blood cells.
Ways your Dead Tooth can be Fixed
There are two major ways to fix this. They are complete removal or extraction of tooth and root canal treatment.
Complete Tooth Removal
In this process, your dentist removes the affected tooth to ease discomfort. On removal, you can opt for replacement with a prosthetic.
Root Canal treatment
Here, the affected root canal is treated to keep the tooth in place. This involves cleaning and sealing the root canal if an opening is found. This method prevents abnormal smell, manages pain, and also still leaves you with your tooth intact.
Conclusion
It’s important to go to your dentist if you notice the signs of tooth death. Also, as a measure of your dental wellbeing, ensure you constantly care for your teeth.
