Treating A Root Apical Cyst With A Root Canal Treatment

“ According to a panoramic X-ray I had recently taken, there is an apical cyst on my tooth root. I have no problems and no pain, just a bump on top of my tooth. What should I do?”

Cyst

If there is an apical cyst on the root of one of your teeth, or any sort of growth (a granuloma, for instance), then that is a pretty good indication that the nerve at the root of that tooth has died. This condition may cause no noticeable change for quite some time. Often enough the first sign that the patients notice is that the tooth starts to darken, while others may feel extreme pain just from biting down a little bit harder than usual. The little bump that appears at the apex of the root is actually a gathering of pus. If not treated, the pus will (eventually), find its way through the little bump into the oral cavity. If this happens, no pain will be felt, as the substance will not press down on the nerves, but instead will exit the gums. This does not mean that this condition is not dangerous; the constant exposure to pus will start to affect a larger and larger area of your jawbone, loosening your teeth. This is especially a problem as treatment will become harder and harder to prescribe, as the safety of your teeth and jawbone will be compromised.

If you are just feeling the little bump at the apex of your tooth, I recommend getting a root canal treatment. Keeping the roots clean is absolutely indispensable for treatment, and no root canal treatment is complete without an antibiotic filling at the end of it, and if the situation calls for it, a  course of antibiotics may need to be prescribed as well. Rinsing the root canal and the use of laser cleansing techniques may also be necessary to reach optimal results.

Sometimes, if the cyst is not removed for long enough, the infection can only be cured by amputating the tooth root.

It is important to note that all of these procedures can be done without the patient feeling a thing, thanks to the wonders of modern anaesthesiology. If you feel that there is a bump, you should act immediately; contact your dentist- the longer you let it sit, the more problems there will be later on, and the harder and more expensive the treatment will become!