Other forms: root canals
If your dentist says you need a root canal, it's not great news. It means you have some infected pulp deep inside your tooth that has to be removed.
Root canal has two meanings — it's the name for the space at the center of a tooth's root, and it's also the procedure for fixing an infection in that space. Unfortunately, when your dentist starts talking about root canals, she's usually referring to the process of drilling deep into a tooth to remove infected tissue from the root. The good news is that the first step in a root canal is making sure the patient's mouth is completely numb.