When it comes to killing the nerve I believe that many people have already changed their complexion. If a tooth is rotten to a certain extent, you have to kill the nerve to be able to not kill the pain. Kill the nerve is a common expression, should be called pulp deactivation, the pulp is the “nerve”, but in addition to the sensory function has a role in nourishing the tooth, will be mentioned later. There are many ways to kill a nerve, from being poisoned by drugs, to being thwarted by drilling, to being bitten by bacteria, to being “dried up”. The most effective method internationally is root canal therapy RCT, which is also the most troublesome and expensive of the above methods. What is a root canal? Root canal is the cavity in the root where the tooth nerve is located, through the apical foramen and the same as the bone. Once the caries is not effectively controlled, as the worm tooth continues to penetrate deeper and deeper, it may lead to the infection of the nerve in the root canal, then the tooth will start to have a transient sensitivity to hot and cold stimuli – it is not afraid to eat hot or cold food. Then within a few days, irreversible necrosis of the pulp occurs and tooth pain begins, very severe pain, half of the face hurts, and eating hot or cold food hurts more, at night than during the day. After a while, the infection will come to the bone with the apical foramen mentioned earlier, causing periapical inflammation and starting to appear afraid to bite, and the tooth will hurt when it is strained. If the tooth has irreversible necrosis and you want to save the tooth, there is only one way left to kill the nerve. The principle of root canal treatment is to completely remove the infected material from the tooth by mechanical treatment, and then the empty root canal is filled tightly with medicine to prevent re-infection. The entire treatment process takes 3-5 sessions and costs several hundred to nearly a thousand dollars. The advantages of root canal treatment compared to other methods are: precise efficacy, no use of toxic drugs, and the possibility of receiving follow-up treatment. As I mentioned earlier, the pulp also has the role of nourishing the tooth, and when the nerve is killed, the tooth loses this nourishment and becomes brittle. A tooth that has had its nerve killed will tend to withstand excessive force because it won’t hurt anymore. A tooth that has had a root canal for various reasons still has a significant strength difference from a healthy tooth, so it is generally recommended that a full crown – or “braces” – be made on the tooth to protect it after an RCT. Is it possible to save money by having it extracted? Once a tooth is extracted, the only way to restore its full function is to get a dental implant, which costs $18,000. Therefore, if you check the tooth earlier, find the tooth decay earlier, and fill it up earlier, you don’t need to suffer from the root canal treatment and spend this money.