Because the tooth will not heal by itself. Without treatment, the infection will spread, bone around the tooth will begin to degenerate, and the tooth may fall-out. Pain usually worsens until one is forced to seek emergency dental attention. The only alternative is usually extraction of the tooth, which can cause surrounding teeth to shift crookedly, resulting in a bad bite.

Underneath your tooth's outer enamel and within the dentin is an area of soft tissue called the pulp, which carries the tooth's nerves, veins, arteries and lymph vessels. Root canals are very small, thin divisions that branch off from the top pulp chamber down to the tip of the root. A tooth has at least one but no more than four root canals.

The single most important benefit of root canal therapy is that you keep your tooth. Extraction may lead to other dental problems. For instance, drifting of teeth, bite problems, TMJ discomfort, and the need to treat adjacent teeth that do not otherwise need dental treatment in order to restore the missing tooth. No matter how effective modern tooth replacements are - and they can be very effective - nothing is a good as your natural tooth.

Rarely. If the tooth can be made numb with a local anesthetic—the procedure will be painless. Rarely, a tooth is too infected or inflamed to be able to be made numb, so antibiotics and pain relievers are administered for a few days until the tooth improves and can be anesthetized. Once the tooth is numb, you feel pressure during treatment, but no pain. Some patients are difficult to anesthetize and may require more anesthetic than others to obtain complete anesthesia.

When a tooth dies on the inside where the nerve is, it becomes an area that is ripe for infection. If left alone, the tooth will become infected and pressure will build up causing a toothache. It is very difficult to treat the inside of a tooth like a regular infection, because blood carrying antibiotics cannot reach inside the tooth to help kill the bacteria.

The treatment we provide is part of a comprehensive treatment plan which has been established by your general dentist. Endodontically treated teeth will require placement of a definitive restoration (filling or crown), to prevent fracture or contamination of the tooth. Your general dentist is best qualified to determine how your tooth is to be restored to full form and function. Your dentist must be contacted as soon as possible to arrange for completion of the restorative treatment plan.

No. While most teeth which have had root canal treatments do need crowns to strengthen the teeth and to return the teeth to normal form and function, not every tooth needing a crown also needs to have a root canal.

Always – No. In instances when a large amount of tooth structure is lost due to decay, then yes the tooth should be protected with an onlay or a crown (generically referred to as a "cap"). If the tooth has an excessively large filling with evidence of fracture lines in the remaining natural tooth structure, and is in a stress bearing area of the mouth, that too is an indication for a crown or onlay.