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.