Searching For A Northridge Endodontist Near Me or A Root Canal Dentist?

If you have a regular family dentist, your dentist may directly refer you to an endodontist they recommend.

But what if you don’t have a family dentist? And even if you do, not all general practice dentists offer after-hours emergency care and referrals.

So how can you find a endodontist near you in Northridge, CA if you don’t know who to ask?

In this case, the best way to find an endodontist near you to contact us at (844) 851-8301.

How To Know If You Need a Northridge Emergency Endodontist

It often seems like tooth emergencies arise on weekends, evenings, or national holidays, doesn’t it? These are the worst times to try to get in touch with your regular dentist if you even have a regular dentist (and many people do not).

When you are experiencing a toothache or tooth pain, and it is after hours or on a weekend or major holiday, this can be very stressful.

How can you know if you need an emergency endodontist?

There are some warning signs you can watch for that indicate your tooth pain simply cannot wait:

• You feel a throbbing or stabbing pain in or near a tooth.
• You are running a fever.
• You can feel or see an abscess (lump or pus-filled sore) in your gum-line.
• Your tooth is sore when you touch it.
• You can only eat soft foods because your tooth hurts so much.
• Your tooth or surrounding gum-line has changed color.
• You see swelling, discoloration, and/or blood.
• You feel sensitive to heat or cold.

Any of these indicators should tell you that you must seek emergency endodontic care immediately.

When you start to feel an ache in your tooth, you may not know what to do first. Is it serious? Should you call an emergency dentist? What if you don’t have dental insurance, as many people do not today? Will it be very expensive to fix it?

It is normal and natural to feel scared when you think you have a toothache. There is something wrong in your mouth, and you don’t know what it is or what to do.

One of the most common reasons a tooth hurts or ache is when the root gets infected. When this happens, you may discover that you need a procedure called a root canal.

A root canal is commonly performed by a dental specialist called an endodontist. In this article, learn more about the difference between a dentist and an endodontist and what to know before making an endodontist appointment.

What Does An Endodontist Do

An endodontist is a special kind of dentist. An endodontist goes through dental school just like general practice and family dentists. But then they have to get even more education and training.

The reason for this is that the field of endodontics focuses on treating the roots of your teeth.

In order to understand what an endodontist does, it first helps to understand the different basic parts of each tooth in your mouth.

Many people do not realize that each tooth in the mouth has one or multiple roots. The number of roots a tooth has often depends on its position in the mouth. For example, front teeth normally have one root. Back teeth may have two or even three roots.

When a tooth gets infected, the infection may affect just one root or all roots (if the tooth has more than one).

Each root has a dedicated passageway called the “root canal” that it uses to connect its tooth to the jaw bone and hold it in place.

If you are visual, it may help to think of the tooth like a tree. If the tooth is the tree itself, then you can think of the tooth root like it is the roots of the tree and the root canal like it is the surrounding earth.

The root and the root canal work together to keep the tooth secure in its proper place in your mouth.

Now that you understand the three main parts of each tooth – the tooth itself, the tooth root, and the root canal – it is easier to understand how a dentist might work on the tooth while an endodontist works on the root and the root canal.

What To Expect From A Root Canal Specialist

An endodontist, or root canal specialist, has received additional education and training to work on the tooth root and the root canal.

A Northridge root canal specialist is going to be the right professional to see when your general practice dentist informs you that you have a suspected or confirmed root infection.

When you get a toothache, you may not know at first what is causing it or whether it is anything to worry about. It is quite common for patients to check with their regular dentist first to find out what is wrong.

If you have a regular dentist, your dentist might do a visual examination or take X-rays to find out what is going on in the area where you feel the toothache. This is often when patients find out they may need a root canal and get a referral to a root canal specialist, or endodontist.

So what should you expect when you have your endodontist appointment?

When you go to the endodontist, they may want to take their own X-rays or you may be able to have your regular dentist send over your recent X-rays for review.

The endodontist will review your X-rays and do their own examination of the affected area in your mouth. They will tell you the best treatment plan to address your pain. Often, the recommended procedure will be a root canal.

What Is an Endodontist vs Dentist?

As we discussed in an earlier section, a dentist has received higher education to practice general dentistry. Typically a general practice dentist will offer preventative dental care and perform minor procedures such as filling cavities.

An endodontist has received additional education and training beyond general dentistry school. So an endodontist can do everything a general practice dentist can do and can also do root canals and other more complicated dental surgery procedures.

What Procedures Does an Endodontist Perform?

Endodontists can perform a number of delicate and sometimes complicated procedures to help restore and even save a tooth.

Root canals are the most common procedures that endodontists perform. Most endodontists will do multiple root canals every single day of the week.

But an endodontist can also repair a root that has been injured, remove one tooth root without harming the others, divide a functional tooth in half to save the viable half, and even extract, repair, and then replace a tooth.

Why Would My Dentist Send Me to an Endodontist?

The number one reason a general practice dentist would send you to an endodontist is if you have a suspected or confirmed tooth root infection.

While your general dentist could fill an infected tooth for you, if the tooth root is injured or infected, you need to see an endodontist trained to work on tooth roots.

Endodontic Surgery Cost

While the term “root canal” is used to describe the general procedure used to repair or remove an infected or injured tooth root, there are many different ways this type of procedure can be done.

It really depends on what is causing the problem in your tooth root.

For a standard root canal, your endodontist will remove the infected pulp, cleans the area, seals it, and puts a crown on the tooth. There are two main types of root canals: the standard procedure and a less-invasive procedure called a pulpotomy.

If the first root canal doesn’t resolve the problem, your endodontist can do retreatment to identify and resolve other complicating issues.

Sometimes your endodontist may recommend an apicoectomy, which is a procedure to remove infection around the tooth root’s end by removing the tooth’s end and filling it.

What Is an Endodontist?

An endodontist is a dentist with more specialized education and training. A dentist can care for and work on your teeth.

An endodontist can do everything a dentist does and work on your teeth’ roots.

What Is a Root Canal Dentist?

A Northridge root canal dentist is an endodontist (also called an endodontist). An endodontist is trained in general dentistry and in endodontics, the dental science of treating tooth roots and surrounding root canals.

If your tooth pain cannot be resolved with a simple filling, you may need to visit a root canal dentist to see if you need a root canal procedure.

For after-hours care or on weekends or holidays, or if you do not have a general practice dentist, contact us at (844) 851-8301 to find an endodontist right away.