Expert: Rafael Mosery,D.D.S. - 6/19/2007

Question
I'm going in for a procedure next week because of some tooth pain I've been experiencing. Today, my dentist determined that when I was hit in the face a few weeks ago, my tooth experienced some trauma from the blow. He said since that the tooth is basically suffocating itself because of the stress pressure slowly cutting of blood and oxygen supply to my tooth. He said that next week when I come in, he will "clean" out the tooth and try to save it. I'm not sure what type of procedure he is talking about, so I was hoping you could get me some insight of what exactly is happening to my tooth (based on what he told me) and what procedure my dentist is talking about? I hope this isn't too confusing, but it's hard for me to describe what going on b/c I have no clue! Thanks so much for any help!

Answer
The only reasonable thing I could think of is a root canal therapy.Is the tooth painful on touching or biting? Do you have swelling in the area?Did the tooth turn dark?These are all signs that the tooth the got hit has to get treated with root canal therapy to save it.