Antibiotics after receiving a root canal are not always a necessity. Following root canal therapy, you need some time to recover entirely. During this period, you must avoid eating crispy or complex foods soon after getting a root canal. Here is what you can expect after getting a root canal near you to eradicate dental pulp infections.
What Should I Expect after Root Canal Treatment?
You can expect some sensitivity following a root canal for a few days. Your body begins the recovery process, and any symptoms you experience are temporary and will subside by themselves in a few days. Your dentist suggests you take over-the-counter pain relievers for comfort for approximately 96 hours after the treatment to help you manage the pain. In addition, you must avoid eating anything until the numbness wears off from the anesthesia you receive when undergoing the treatment. You must not chew on complex foods with the treated tooth until you restore it with a dental crown. You can continue brushing and flossing your teeth as usual after receiving root canal therapy.
How Successful Are Root Canals?
If the treatment was performed by the dentist in 60418, you could expect the treated tooth to last as long as your remaining teeth. However, you must visit the dental team periodically for exams to ensure your treated tooth is in optimal shape.
Rarely a root canal-treated tooth fails to recover and becomes reinfected. In such cases, you might need another round of endodontic treatment or have to get the tooth extracted for replacement with implants or bridges.
Do You Need Antibiotics after a Root Canal?
You must follow your dentist’s instructions stringently after receiving root canal therapy. Occasionally your dentist might prescribe antibiotics but in many cases, hold off. Many people express surprise with information that antibiotics can also cause problems as your mouth bacteria try to resist them. It is to prevent such issues that dentists prefer to wait and see instead of describing antibiotics and monitoring the patient suggesting using over-the-counter painkillers for comfort and fever before suggesting antibiotics.
As a patient, it is essential that you understand the functioning of antibiotics. Antibiotics help re-establish your immune system but are not a cure. In addition, taking antibiotics proactively doesn’t prevent infection, and they are best taken to help fight infections if they occur.
Antibiotics have been around for nearly 100 years and are still undergoing extensive research. Sometimes the fewer antibiotics you take, the better it is for your general health, especially with low-risk procedures like root canals. Please discuss with your dentist their thoughts on the use of antibiotics without hesitating to ask them questions about why they are not prescribing them in your specific situation.
Root canals are relatively familiar, with over 40 million procedures performed in the US annually. The therapy helps remove an infection from within your tooth and helps preserve your natural tooth, which would otherwise need extraction. Depending on your specific case, the dentist might prescribe antibiotics to help with your healing. However, appropriate dental care and not antibiotics are essential after receiving root canals. Therefore you must make efforts not to reinfect your tooth by following your dentist’s instructions and avoiding biting with the treated tooth.
You became vulnerable to receiving a root canal because you let a cavity in your teeth remain untreated or ignored the damage to your teeth from impacts on your mouth. As a result, your mouth bacteria would have worked tirelessly to reach the dental pulp to infect and inflame it and the root canals. If you had received fillings for the cavity or treated the damaged tooth immediately, you wouldn’t have become prone to receiving intensive treatment. The reason that made you vulnerable to this treatment should make it clear you must care for your teeth to ensure you don’t develop infections that require such therapies.
If antibiotics could clear the infection, you would have received prescriptions for them when you contacted your dentist with severe pain and sensitivity in the tooth. The dentist wouldn’t have recommended root canal therapy unless they considered it an essential requirement. Therefore we suggest you follow the same principle and try to prevent infections in your teeth without relying on antibiotics as a remedy against the infection.
Family Dental Care — Crestwood performs multiple root canals frequently without prescribing antibiotics which they don’t consider essential. Therefore, if you need this treatment, you find it beneficial to schedule a meeting with the practice and receive help to save your tooth from extraction without using antibiotics.
