Root Canal Treatment

If you are in pain right now

Call us and describe what you feel. We will tell you honestly whether you should come in today or whether it can wait.

Come in today if the pain throbs in time with your pulse, if it wakes you at night, if your gum is swollen or has a lump on it, or if the tooth has suddenly become loose.

What a root canal actually is

Inside every tooth there is a narrow space called the root canal, and inside that there are nerves and blood vessels. When decay reaches that space, or the tooth cracks and bacteria get in, the tissue inside becomes inflamed. That inflammation is the pain you are feeling.

Root canal treatment means opening the tooth, removing that inflamed tissue, cleaning the space, and sealing it so bacteria cannot get back in. The tooth stays where it is. You chew on it as before.

The other option is to take the tooth out. That is quicker and cheaper on the day. But once the tooth is gone, the teeth beside it slowly tip into the space, and the tooth above drifts down. Putting something back later — a bridge or an implant — costs more in total than keeping the tooth you have. Your dentist will explain both paths and let you choose.

Does it hurt?

Root canals have a bad reputation. What we see every day is that the pain happens before you come in, not during the treatment.

You are given local anaesthetic first, every time. Once it has taken effect, most people say they feel nothing. If you do start to feel something, raise your hand — the dentist stops and tops up the anaesthetic. You are not expected to put up with it.

Afterwards most people have no symptoms. Some feel a dull ache or tenderness for a day or two after the first visit, which then fades. If it is worse than that or lasts longer, call us.

How many visits?

At least two. The real number depends on what the X-ray shows and on how much pain you arrived with.

A tooth that has been infected for a long time, or that has an abscess at the root tip, needs an antibacterial dressing left inside the canal and a follow-up visit to check the infection has settled. Those cases take three visits or more.

After looking at your X-ray, the dentist tells you at the first visit how many visits your case is likely to need and what the whole thing will cost. Nothing gets added along the way without you knowing.

How we do it here

If you have had root canal treatment somewhere else, these are the things worth comparing.

The first thing you will notice is the green sheet. People often ask why it is there — it is the single step that changes the outcome most, and it is the first item below.

• A rubber dam on every case. A thin sheet of rubber isolates the tooth so saliva — which is full of bacteria — cannot run into the canal we have just cleaned, and so the irrigating solution does not run down your throat. Our dentists treat this as non-negotiable. There are no exceptions.
• An apex locator. It measures exactly how long the root is, so the canal is cleaned and filled right to the tip — not short, which leaves bacteria behind, and not past the tip.
• You see your own X-ray. There is a screen in the treatment room. Your dentist opens your image and shows you where the problem is, rather than just telling you about it.
• Cases we send elsewhere. If a canal is calcified and the opening cannot be found, or a root is unusually curved, the case needs a dental microscope, which we do not have here. The dentist will tell you at the examination and recommend somewhere that does have one. We would rather your tooth had the best chance.

Between visits

Eat normally. While the treatment is still in progress the tooth is closed with a temporary filling, so avoid sticky and hard food on that side — a temporary filling comes loose more easily than a permanent one. Chewing on the other side is safest.

If the temporary filling does come out before your next appointment, call us. Do not leave it, because bacteria will get back into the canal we cleaned.

Once the root canal is finished and the tooth has its permanent restoration, you eat normally again.

Why a crown usually comes next

A root-treated tooth is more brittle than a normal one. Some tooth structure has been removed, and there is no longer a blood supply inside it. Back teeth in particular take heavy chewing force, and when one of those cracks it usually cracks deep — deep enough that the tooth cannot be kept and has to come out. That loses you both the tooth and the money you spent saving it.

The dentist looks at how much sound tooth is left and tells you whether a permanent filling is enough or whether the tooth needs a crown, and what that costs, at the start.

Read about crowns →

What the price does not include

The prices below are for the root canal treatment itself. Rebuilding the tooth afterwards is separate, because it depends on how much of the tooth is left: a post 3,500 THB, a crown 9,000–15,000 THB, or a filling 2,000–3,000 THB. Your dentist gives you the full figure before starting.

Thai social security does not cover root canal treatment. Its dental allowance covers basic work only.

Prices

A dentist examines you and plans the treatment before anything starts. It takes about 20 minutes, and you hear the full cost before we begin. The examination is included in the cost of treatment; on its own it is 100 THB. If a filling or a scaling needs local anaesthetic, that is 100 THB.

See the full price list →

The dentists who do this work

• 
  Dr. Kitichai Singharat“Dr. Mhee” · M.Sc. (Dentistry), Rangsit University · 2025ท.20272
• 
  Dr. Worachai Malert“Dr. Fei” · M.Sc. (Clinical Dentistry), Srinakharinwirot University · 2025ท.16463

The number under each name is the dentist's licence from the Thai Dental Council, which you can check yourself.