A darker tooth may mean a damaged tooth

A root canal therapy involves the treatment of a tooth whose tissue has caught an infection. Due to this infection, the tooth tissue that is the pulp under the tooth enamel gets damaged. It is required to be removed as soon as possible or it may result in the decaying of the tooth roots and ultimately a broken tooth. Though this therapy is a little painful but nowadays many provisions have been made to decrease or eliminate this pain such as the use of anesthetics and sedatives. So it has become a less painful and more fruitful treatment.

Each tooth has its own network of nerves and roots that supply nutrients to it. These nutrients are supplied to the tooth by the tissue or the pulp that is located under the tooth enamel and extends to its roots. This space under the tooth refers to as the dental root canals . As there are two types of teeth- incisors and molars, the former having a single root and the latter with multiple roots, the number of canals will also differ. The molars will have 3 to 4 canals. If the tooth gets harmed due to a tooth infection, a dental disease or a trauma, the pulp starts decaying. This decay may be minor or major depending upon the damage caused to the tooth.

Generally symptoms like tooth pain, loosening or swelling of gums indicate such a problem but there are chances when one may not notice any such troubles and still there is a problem in the tooth. This is the case when the tooth gets darkened. You might have noticed someone who has a different darker color of a tooth as compared to his other teeth. Though this is a very uncommon problems as its reason of occurrence is an excessive external pressure applied on the tooth. This may happen in case of an accident or a fight when a high pressure is applied on the teeth especially the front teeth. it is very tough to recognize the existence of a tooth problem in such a case as there is no pain or swelling of gums at all. But if you have noticed such an abnormality in your teeth, you should rush to the dentist at once.

Root canal therapies have a very high success rate of around 95%. This is because these procedures are transparent and the aftereffects of the treatment itself tell about the condition of the tooth. Also the tooth is kept under observation for a long time after the therapy and if required, additional steps can be taken to rectify any error remaining. Yet there are a few undesired effects that can occur due to this therapy. If the pulp is not fully removed, the infection may develop again. This happens in case of infected molars which have more dental root canals. Also if the tooth is not properly condensed after the treatment, new bacteria can enter the tooth causing new issues. The roots may also get damaged due to an improperly performed procedure.