If your dentist has diagnosed that you need Root Canal Treatment, it can be because of various reasons or conditon of the tooth involved. Most commonly in the cases of tooth being badly decayed / infected and the pulp is exposed. These reasons are discussed as under:
Severe Gum Disease
Injury: Root canal of a tooth is sometimes required due to injury to tooth. It is done in following circumstances:
During a dental procedure involving excavation of deep caries, or accidental exposure during tooth preparation procedure etc. It is better to treat such a tooth with root canal treatment to avoid problems in the future.
Due to an accident which may infect the pulp. The nerve tissue of the tooth that has undergone the trauma might seem to be perfectly fine but actually it might have started or will start to degenerate mostly, even without any symptoms. The painless tooth with degenerated nerve tissue will usually appear darker than the neighboring teeth.
Both these cases injury needs to be treated with root canal treatment.
Intentional Root Canal Treatment: It is done in cases where it is unavoidable to precede with the dental treatment of other teeth without involving other teeth like in case of a bridge a carious tooth if needed to be used as a support needs to undergo root canal treatment. Several fillings placed on the same tooth again and again over a period of time might also damage the pulp.
Gum diseases can lead to pulling away of the gums from the teeth creating a space known as the periodontal pocket. This pocket traps bacteria that can infect the pulp. Lesions in which both gum disease and dental nerve tissue infection co-exist are referred as endo-perio lesions in clinical terms. It can be that a pulp infection gives rise to gum disease or vice-versa as well. Treating with root canal treatment helps to improve health of both the tissues
Root canal treatment is done mainly in cases involving pulp injury but at times it can be done intentionally also like in cases of a fixed partial denture where a missing tooth has to be replaced by involving the neighboring teeth intentional root canal is done on those neighboring teeth which might turn into root canal cases later on so to avoid trouble then they are treated beforehand only. The various causes are-
Untreated Tooth Decay: The enamel acts as an armor protecting the sensitive dentin underneath and pulp beneath and if the infection continues due to untreated or unnoticed dental decay it will reach the pulp tissue and infect it.
The nerve tissue becomes infected and then inflamed and is therefore highly sensitive and painful even when no immediate stimulus is present. Root canal stops the infection from spreading further.