Root Canal and Treatment for Children: When Baby Teeth Need Saving

Baby root canals might become necessary to save your child’s infected or damaged tooth. While you may express anxiety about the procedure, it is essential to know the dentist near you would not recommend the process unless it becomes necessary.

Present-day technology enables the Endodontists near you to perform baby root canals with minimal pain to successfully eliminate infection inside a tooth, whether in permanent or baby teeth. In addition, anesthetics and painkillers offset any potential discomfort your child might feel when undergoing this intensive procedure.

Understanding the Need for Root Canal Treatment in Baby Teeth

When trying to understand the need for baby root canals, you might have to watch out for complaints from your child about persistent toothaches, severely decayed or broken teeth, irritability, and other signs that make you take them to the dentist nearby to evaluate their condition.

You may think baby teeth are temporary and will fall out by six or seven without realizing they work as placeholders for permanent teeth and need maintenance until they fall out naturally. Baby teeth are essential for the proper eruption of permanent teeth. Dentists recommend a root canal to preserve the child’s natural tooth when a tooth is irreparable or excessively damaged.

Signs and Symptoms Indicating Baby Teeth Require Root Canal Treatment

Mouth bacteria infecting baby or permanent teeth do not differentiate in symptoms of the infection. Children needing root canal treatment on baby teeth exhibit the same symptoms as adults with excruciating pain in a specific tooth, temperature sensitivity to hot and cold foods and beverages, pain when biting, fever, facial swelling, and pimples near the tooth roots oozing pus indicating the child has a severe infection inside a specific tooth better treated at the earliest by performing a root canal.

The Root Canal Treatment Process for Baby Teeth

The Root canal treatment process for baby teeth is similar to root canals on adult teeth. The dentist in Lincoln, NE, aims to remove the tooth’s infected portion to restore it to its natural function and appearance. Below is a review of the process you can understand as a parent.

During an exam, your child is examined by the dentist to determine their level of dental anxiety to ascertain the kind of anesthesia they will require when undergoing this procedure. While the dentist will administer local anesthesia in your child’s mouth to numb the affected tooth depending on their dental anxiety to ensure they experience no discomfort and allow the dentist to work uninterrupted when removing the infection inside the tooth.

After rendering your child’s tooth numb, the dentist will drill an access hole in the crown to expose the infected dental pulp and the nerves in the soft center of the tooth. After eradicating the infection from within, the dentist will clean the pulp chamber and disinfect it before applying medications to the area and sealing it off. Finally, you will receive a recommendation from the dentist to restore the child’s tooth with a stainless steel crown for protection until the permanent tooth is ready to emerge.

Tips for Preparing Children for Root Canal Treatment

Giving children information about an intensive procedure or telling them the dentist will open their tooth to remove the infection from within is likely to scare them like adults. In addition, they will express anxiety about the pain and discomfort they might feel during the procedure. Therefore it helps if you discuss the preparation process with the Lincoln dentist requesting help to prepare your child for a root canal before arriving for their appointment.

You can use regular tricks to convince your child that the dentist will remove a painful monster from within their tooth to help preserve it using a simple process. For example, if your child is anxious about dental visits, the Lincoln dentist might provide liquid sedation to calm your child before arriving at the dental practice for the procedure. However, to prepare your child, you must use your imagination and convince them the treatment is essential to preserve their natural tooth and prevent problems later.

After-Care and Follow for Children Who Have Undergone Root Canal Treatment and Baby Teeth

Your child will experience discomfort after the anesthesia starts wearing off and might remain irritable throughout the day from the pain. However, after getting your child root canal treatment in Lincoln, NE, expect to receive sufficient instructions from the Lincoln dentist on the after-care for children undergoing root canals.

You receive instructions to refrain your child from exercising or running around to prevent bleeding from the treated tooth and restrict them from having crunchy and hard foods, which they favor besides carbonated drinks. Children are best provided soft foods during their recovery and painkillers suggested by the dentist to alleviate discomfort. In addition, you can intermittently use ice packs on children’s cheeks, alternating them on and off after every 15 minutes. The pain experienced by your child will subside in approximately 72 hours, and they will require about a week to recover entirely from the procedure, after which you can take them to their pediatric dentist to restore the treated tooth with a stainless steel dental crown.

Root canal treatments become essential for children with severely decayed or broken teeth and are routinely performed by dentists to eliminate infections in the tooth and preserve the natural tooth. Therefore if your child has an infected or damaged tooth, kindly do not hesitate to visit Lincoln Dental Associates with your child to get the treatment and help to recover as soon as possible.