tooth health

Hi Charlotte, While you’re waiting for other members to join in with their experiences, I can give you a few details. The Gentle Wave procedure for root canal treatment came out after I retired from career as a dental assistant for 30+years. So I didn’t have personal experience with assisting the dentist with this particular technique. But I am familiar with the process.
This system has been in use for about 10 years and it has made the procedure much less uncomfortable for patients. The tooth is essentially ‘cleaned out’ ultrasonically instead of having to use reamers (little files) that are rotated down into the canals to remove dead nerve material. Each time the little file is twisted and retrieved, a small layer of tooth material comes with it. Think of drilling into a piece of wood and then removing the drill. You see bits of wood coming back out. Obviously, the amount of tooth involved is microscopic compared to that, but it gives you an example.

The Gentle Wave technique doesn’t use reamers. The root’s canals are cleaned with ultrasonic sound waves and a solution that flushes the material out instead of ‘drilling’…thereby saving tooth structure. Usually this can be completed in one visit.
If your dentist is offering this technique, they are using state of the art equipment and I think you’ll find the experience less daunting than the old Johnny Carson jokes about having a root canal treatment. ☺️

Will you please share your experience after you’ve had this done?

@charlotte12 The Gentle Wave Technique definitely sounds like a better option! I had never heard of it till now - thank you, @loribmt for this information!

Hi @rashida. Here is a link to the Gentle Wave Endodontic procedure website. https://gentlewave.com/resources/root-canal-alternative-procedure

If you scroll to the bottom there is a list of Endodontists who have invested in the system, which is pricy. So not every dentist will have access/training to use the technology.

While this is an appreciated advancement in Endodontics, it doesn’t mean the traditional practice is out-dated. Not having the system in office doesn’t reflect negatively on a current dentist. ☺️

Thanks, @loribmt! I will save this information! I have heard and read horror stories about root canal procedures and up till now thought if I should ever been told I need one my only other option was going to a tooth extraction because I would never get a root canal procedure!

Thanks for your comment. The endodontist had brochures laid out and explained the benefits. I had traditional root canals by different endodonists, some good, some bad, in one case a file had broken off and ended up in the root, never was told about, till a x-ray not related to this visit was done, but even then no other dentist would point it out either until I happened to see an xray of this tooth with my own eyes. So if you get a traditional root canal ask to have a look at the x-ray before and after. I can report back how it went.

Don’t hesitate to have a root canal if there’s a choice between that and losing a perfectly good tooth that’s anchored well into the bone. You can read horror stories about almost anything…those are the tales that get told. People seldom write about positive or successful procedures and surgeries.

I can’t even tell you the number of times patients would leave the chair after a root canal treatment (rtc) and say “That wasn’t as bad as I expected”. Or “That didn't’ hurt at all! Or “I don’t know why I was so worried.” Most of the time these are non-events that got a bad reputation somewhere along the line.

When a person needs a root canal treatment it means the nerve or nerves in the tooth have died. Some teeth have only one root, some have 2, 3 or more. Each root has a nerve feeding up through root tip into the nerve chamber of the tooth. If the dead material isn’t removed, it can decompose, creating gases and pus as an infection begins. This can cause an abscess to form at the tip of the root as this material escapes from the tiny hole at the root tip into the bone.
In a RCT, the dead nerve tissue is removed from the canals of the tooth, then the canals are filled with a special medicated filling or inert material to avoid a return of the infection caused by the dead nerve tissue. At that time, the tooth is considered non-vital and can become brittle. That’s why it is recommended after a Root Canal Treatment (RCT) to have the tooth crowned (capped). That is much less expensive, less invasive and healthier than having the tooth removed and then replaced with an implant and a crown. Both are viable options but if that RCT tooth is structurally sound and well anchored in the bone it would be a shame to lose it.

So fingers crossed you never need a RCT but please don’t cross that off the list of options. They are good alternatives to losing a tooth. ☺️

Very interesting and helpful explanation, Lori.
Thanx!