Root Canals in Nashville, TN

Your tooth is protected by a hard outer layer of dental enamel. Beneath it is a softer layer called dentin, and at the very inside of your tooth is the pulp chamber.

The pulp chamber carries blood vessels, tissue, and nerves that keep your tooth healthy and alive. This area is well protected, but a deep cavity or damage to the tooth can allow an infection to penetrate and develop inside the pulp chamber. Because the nerves of your tooth are located in this area, many root canal infections are quite painful.

Our dentists in Nashville, TN perform a root canal to remove the infected material from inside your tooth. Without root canal therapy, the infection will continue to spread, the pain will worsen, and eventually, we would need to remove the tooth.

Root Canals Relieve Pain and Save Your Tooth

You’ve probably heard lots of stories about how much root canals hurt, but the procedure actually relieves your pain. Root canals tend to have a bad reputation because it’s the pain of infection that most people remember about the experience afterward.

Your dentist performs a root canal to remove the infection that’s causing your pain. Once we numb the tooth with a local anesthetic, the pain will stop, and it won’t return.

The time has come to stop believing outdated myths and see root canals for the pain-relieving and tooth-saving procedures that they are.

Knowing what to expect from your root canal treatment can help you feel more confident going into the procedure. The goal of root canal therapy is to remove the infection from inside your tooth. That’s it!

Numbing Your Tooth

The first step is to give you a local anesthetic to numb the tooth we’re working on. Numbing the tooth provides immediate pain relief and also keeps you comfortable throughout your procedure. If you’ve chosen sedation, we’ll make sure you’re calm and relaxed before we begin.

Clearing away the Infection

Our Nashville, TN dentists start the root canal procedure by making a small hole in your tooth to access the inner portion of your tooth. Using specialized instruments, we gently reach into the root canals to remove the infected material. This step is critical because we need to make sure that we remove every trace of the infection.

Sealing and Filling the Tooth

Once the infection is cleared away, we disinfect the inside of the tooth, then fill it with a rubber-like material called gutta-percha. The material fills the hollowed-out space of your tooth to add strength to it. The final step is to seal the tooth and place a temporary filling.

Placing a Final Dental Restoration

We’ll leave the site to heal for about two weeks and then have you return to our Brentwood, TN dental office to place your final restoration. A root canal preserves the structure of your tooth, which is the goal of the procedure. But removing the material inside your affected tooth also makes the tooth brittle, so we need to protect it with a restoration like a dental crown.

We Perform Comfortable, Stress-Free Root Canals in Nashville

The American Association of Endodontists estimates that over 15 million root canals are performed annually. That’s a lot of procedures, and a lot of experience gained in ways to improve the process to make it comfortable and stress-free.

Updated techniques and instruments make the procedure efficient and minimize the time you have to sit in the dental chair. We also offer sedation dentistry at our Nashville, TN dental office to help you relax during your root canal.

If you have a root canal scheduled and think that dental sedation will help you relax, please let our dental care team know.

Dr. Rick and Dr. Sully are skilled dentists with over 40 years of experience between them. Over the years, they have helped hundreds of our Nashville, TN patients with comfortable, stress-free root canals.

Our dental care also has decades of experience in assisting in many root canal procedures, and we understand the anxiety that many people have about the process. At Sullivan Dental Partners, you will receive the care and attention you need to ensure that you are completely comfortable during and after your treatment.

If you think you can benefit from sedation dentistry, we also offer nitrous oxide and oral conscious sedation. Please let us know if you’re interested in sedation or if there’s anything else we can do to improve your comfort.

Sedation Dentistry for Our Anxious Patients

Our team understands that years of conditioning have probably left you with a pretty low opinion of this procedure. For this reason, our dental care team makes every effort to keep you comfortable during your root canal treatment. 

Aside from our gentle approach, we offer nitrous oxide and oral sedation at our Brentwood, TN dental office to help keep you calm during your procedure. Mild nitrous oxide sedation will eliminate any anxious feelings and keep you comfortable and relaxed during your procedure.

Oral conscious sedation is another option where our dentists prescribe a calming sedative for you to take about an hour before your appointment. You’ll arrive feeling quite drowsy, relaxed, and comfortable.

We can also achieve excellent calming results for our root canal patients by combining nitrous oxide and oral sedation. Then you can just sit back and put your feet up while we restore your tooth to perfect health.

If having a furry friend to snuggle with will help calm your nerves, we’ll introduce you to Raley, our certified therapy dog. Raley is a loving yellow Labrador who will be happy to cuddle with you to soothe and relax you.

Sedation Dentistry in Nashville, TN

Root canals aren't painful, but the team at Sullivan Dental Partners is sympathetic to your feelings about the procedure. If you think sedation dentistry can benefit you during a root canal or any other dental treatment we offer, please let a member of our dental care team know.