What Are the After-Care Tips for Faster Recovery of Root Canal Treatment?
The mention of root canal treatment can induce scary feelings in you. However, if your dentist recommends undergoing root canal treatment near you, there is no reason for you to alarm yourself. Endodontic therapy to treat a damaged or decayed tooth is relatively safe and is essential to preserve your natural tooth.
Root canal therapy helps repair and save a tooth badly damaged or infected by excessive decay of the soft center of the tooth. The procedure becomes necessary when the dental pulp within your teeth housing the nerves, blood vessels, and connective tissue becomes infected or inflamed.
When undergoing root canal therapy from the dentist in Globe, AZ, the specialist removes the infected pulp inside your tooth before cleaning and sealing it with a temporary filler.
Following root canal treatment, proper dental hygiene is essential to prevent further damage to the treated tooth. Appropriate dental hygiene also helps speed your recovery without inviting complications.
After-Care Tips Following Root Canal Treatment
Avoid Foods for A Few Hours after the Therapy
You will experience pain and swelling around the treated tooth following root canal treatment. In addition, your mouth also remains numb from the anesthesia you receive during the procedure. Therefore, you must refrain from eating foods until the anesthesia wears off entirely to prevent accidental damage to your cheeks and tongue from biting them. In addition, you must also avoid hot foods or beverages because the numbness in your mouth can dull the sensation and make you vulnerable to mouth burns when having scorching foods and drinks.
Refrain from Strenuous Activities
Root canal therapy is a painful treatment requiring you to adhere to the root canal aftercare instructions your dentist provides. Immediately after having a root canal, do not consider exercising on lifting heavy objects because it can aggravate the pain you experience from the treatment. When lying down, keep your head elevated using extra pillows for a few days until you begin feeling comfortable.
Pain Medications
The Globe dentist prescribes or recommends over-the-counter pain relievers for comfort from the pain you experience after the anesthesia wears off. Ensure that you follow your dentist’s after-care tips to the word to find relief from the pain and recover comfortably.
Avoid Crunchy and Hard Foods
The treated tooth remains sensitive for a few days requiring you to avoid having crunchy and hard foods. You must also avoid spicy foods that can inflame your gums and cause additional pain and swelling to hamper your recovery. Instead, it would help if you relied on a diet of soft foods such as yogurt, applesauce, milkshakes, ice cream without nuts and fruits, et cetera. You must also refrain from smoking and consuming alcohol besides hot beverages and drinking using a straw because sucking actions pressurize the tooth to create complications.
Dental Hygiene
You can maintain excellent dental hygiene by remaining cautious not to brush vigorously around the treated tooth. Instead, you help yourself using gentle strokes with a soft-bristled toothbrush until you have the tooth restored with a dental crown.
When maintaining dental hygiene, do not consider using over-the-counter mouthwash because most brands contain at least 20 percent alcohol which can irritate the affected tooth. Instead, you can use a solution of warm salt water to rinse your mouth three to four times per day. Dentists encourage using slightly warm salt water to rinse your mouth and prevent infections around the treated tooth and surrounding gums.
Your recovery depends on how diligently you follow the after-care tips following root canal treatment near you. The sooner you recover, the faster you can have your tooth restored with a dental crown from the dentist.
Tooth Restoration
While eradicating the infection in your tooth, root canal therapy renders the tooth fragile, making it vulnerable to cracking and fractures. You have two options of restoring the treated tooth using permanent fillings or getting a dental crown. Dentists recommend getting dental crowns instead of permanent fillings because, besides restoring your tooth, crowns also strengthen the tooth. Getting dental crowns requires at least a couple of visits to the dentist spanning across three weeks because the restoration is custom created for your mouth.
After you follow the after-care tips and get your tooth restored with a dental crown, you can continue using it as usual without confronting any challenges so long as you ensure that you maintain proper dental hygiene by brushing and flossing as recommended by your dentist and getting six monthly exams and cleanings to remove constantly building dental plaque on and between your teeth. In addition, whenever you experience any impacts on your mouth and feel the effect might have damaged your tooth consult a dentist to determine whether the tooth is damaged and needs restoration with minor treatments to fill cracks before your mouth bacteria penetrate them to make you susceptible to receiving another root canal treatment.
Copper Vista Dental Care performs numerous root canals and provides after-care tips to ensure you recover quickly from the treatment. If you have an injured or contaminated tooth needing this treatment, kindly do not hesitate to contact the practice and receive the therapy as soon as possible.