Taking care of your teeth is essential when it comes to ensuring your overall health. Many people have an aversion to visiting the dentist, so they put off important dental procedures for a time. While you may be tempted to postpone your root canal, there are some situations where an emergency root canal is necessary for your health and safety.

Here are three symptoms that you can watch for when determining if you should invest in an emergency dentist for a root canal, or schedule a regular appointment for your root canal in the future.

1. Visible redness on your jawline.

When you are trying to determine the severity of an affected tooth in an attempt to decide if you need an emergency root canal, it can be helpful to carefully examine the skin along your jawline for signs of redness.

When a tooth becomes extremely infected, the infection can spread to the surrounding tissue. This infection manifests as blotchy redness along your jawbone. If you see signs of a spreading infection, you need to invest in an emergency root canal to prevent the infection from causing significant health problems in the immediate future.

2. Swelling around the affected tooth.

Another sign that your tooth is badly infected is swelling. As the infection begins to spread outward from your affected tooth, the gum tissue surrounding the tooth will become swollen and warm to the touch.

Swelling is a sign that your tooth will need an immediate root canal to help prevent the spreading infection from damaging your other teeth. Schedule an emergency root canal whenever you see evidence of swelling associated with an infected tooth.

3. Intense pain.

A tooth that needs a root canal has pulp that is compromised. This pump is located inside your tooth, along with a nerve. The affected pulp can trigger pain signals within the nerve, causing you to experience intense pain.

The only way to eliminate this pain completely is to remove dead pulp along with the damaged nerve through a root canal. If the pain associated with an infected tooth is so severe it is interfering with your daily activities, you will need to schedule an emergency root canal as quickly as possible.

Knowing when your root canal needs to be performed immediately and when it can wait will help you better utilize root canals to manage the health of your teeth and gums in the future.

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