Root canals are the surest ways of treating an infected or inflamed pulp. Your pulp is the soft tissue found in the root canal. Though normally covered by the tooth, it can easily be exposed after extreme tooth damage or if you don’t attend to a tooth cavity in time.
Since the dental pulp plays host to all the blood vessels, nerves and lymphatic vessels feeding a tooth, its exposure or even minute damage can put the entire tooth at risk. Up to date, a root canal using the best dental supplies remains the surest way to save your tooth.
But what if your healthcare coverage isn’t enough for a root canal and you cannot afford to pay the overdraft? What if you don’t want the root canal? What are your alternatives?
Ozone Gas Treatment
Irrigating the root canal with ozone gas might be your first alternative if you want fast relief without losing the tooth. According to reports published on interventional neuroradiology, the ozone will irradiate the tooth tubules beyond the drilled section of the tooth.
This will kill bacteria and stop the infection on its track hence doing away with the need for a root canal. The only problem is if you don’t exercise exemplary dental hygiene, reinfection can easily reoccur. A simple alternative to the ozone gas treatment would be bathing the cavity in a calcium hydroxide solution to deter the bacterial proliferation.
The calcium hydroxide’s alkalinity not only kills some of the bacteria but also dissolves dead tissue hence reducing the chances of reinfection. Calcium hydroxide must be delivered carefully since it is toxic and can harm you if it is mishandled.
Natural Remedies
We all know that all oral problems stem from improper diets and poor dental hygiene. Getting rid of most processed sugars and avoiding grain might slow down the damage but won’t refill a deep cavity.
Most holistic enthusiasts will advise to combine natural remedies and dietary changes with either ozone gas treatment or calcium hydroxide irrigation. In cases where you cannot afford the root canal and are not willing to live with the searing pain of damage dental pulp, your only option would be extracting the tooth and replacing it with a denture or an implant.
Even though it’s effective, many people think that this is a brash action as there is no way the replacement will be as good as the natural tooth you just lost.
Most dentists will advise on using the non-extractive solutions for a while as you prepare for a root canal. If finances are your only problem, you can even shop around for dental shops or health loans that give you the money you need to save your teeth and pay back the costs over time.
All in all, the above alternatives are a source of comfort to people who don’t want or cannot get a root canal. The natural remedies are especially applicable even to people who don’t have tooth damage but want to avoid it at all costs.