Dead tooth root canal

[Nick01]

Hi

I have a front tooth that was traumatized last year by an accident on a night out last year. The tooth initially looked OK but as time went on, it became darker and darker.

My dentist did some tests on it last month and said that the tooth has died and need to have root canal treatment otherwise an abscess could develop and cause more problems.

Could you tell me, if a tooth is dead then am I right in assuming that there will not be any pain when its drilled for root canal? Is it possible to root canal a dead tooth without injections?

Would you recommend a crown or a veneers after the tooth has been root filled. Obviously a big concern to me is the dark colour of the tooth and would like this sorted out as well as possible. Thank you for your advice.

[Dr Mohsen J. Esfahani]

Thank you for your post.

It is possible to root canal treat a dead tooth without local anaesthetic injections as long as you are sure that the tooth is fully dead. Sometimes some nerve tissue is still there in the canals and you may find that without an injection you will feel some pain.

Most patients opt to have a local anaesthetic injection before root canal treatment just to be on the safe side :-)