The treatment that ends the toothache rather than causing one. The infected nerve is removed under full local anesthetic and the tooth stays yours.
Family Dental Care Missouri provides root canal treatment at 1010 Walnut St, Suite 280, downtown Kansas City, usually in one to two visits under local anesthetic. Root canal treatment (RCT) is performed conveniently in our office by our experienced dental team. The infected nerve is removed and the tooth is sealed and kept. Call (816) 439-7715.
Reviewed by Dr. Navkiran Warya, DDS - August 2026
The truth about itAn infected tooth nerve is one of the worst pains a body produces, and it does not heal itself: inside the rigid walls of a tooth, an inflamed nerve has nowhere to swell and no way to recover. Root canal treatment removes that nerve under thorough local anesthetic, cleans and seals the canals, and by doing so ends the pain at its source. Patients routinely say afterwards that the treatment was easier than the toothache that brought them in. If you are in that toothache now, the emergency page explains what to do today, including our $99 emergency exam with X-rays.
| Sign | What it can mean | How soon to act |
|---|---|---|
| Throbbing ache, worse at night | Inflamed or infected nerve | Same day - call |
| Pain lingering after hot or cold | Nerve inflammation past reversing | Within days |
| Pain on biting | Infection at the root tip, or a crack | Within days |
| Gum swelling or a pimple near a tooth | Draining infection | Same day - call |
| A tooth darkening | A dying nerve, often without pain | Book an exam |
Root canal treatment (RCT) is performed conveniently in our office by our experienced dental team, usually across one to two visits. A back tooth then generally needs a crown to protect it, which is planned and priced alongside the root canal so there are no sequels to the bill. Teeth vary: some have straightforward canals and some are more curved, narrow or previously treated, and the exam and X-ray tell us before we start what your tooth involves and how long it will take. The goal never changes: your own tooth, kept, and the toothache over.
No, and the reputation has it backwards: the pain people associate with root canals is the toothache before treatment, caused by the infected nerve. The treatment itself is done under thorough local anesthetic and, for most patients, feels like a long filling appointment. What it actually does is end the pain by removing its source. Some tenderness for a few days afterwards is normal and manageable. Call (816) 439-7715.
The classic signs are a deep, throbbing toothache, pain that lingers long after hot or cold, pain on biting, a tooth darkening, or a pimple-like swelling on the gum near a tooth. But only an exam and X-ray can confirm it, because those symptoms overlap with other problems, and occasionally an infected nerve produces no pain at all and shows up only on the X-ray. If a tooth is waking you at night, call today. Call (816) 439-7715.
After the tooth is fully numbed, a small opening is made in the top, the infected or dying nerve tissue is removed from the canals inside the root, the canals are cleaned, disinfected and shaped, and then sealed with a filling material so bacteria cannot recolonize the space. The tooth stays yours and keeps working; only the nerve inside it is gone. Most teeth are done in one to two visits. Call (816) 439-7715.
Because the treated tooth is hollower and more brittle than it was, and back teeth in particular can crack under normal chewing without protection. A crown wraps the tooth and takes those forces, which is what makes the investment in saving the tooth last. Front teeth sometimes manage with just a filling, and we tell you which situation yours is in before treatment starts, with both costs written down. Call (816) 439-7715.
Simpler on the day, more expensive for years. An extraction trades a treatable tooth for a gap that then needs its own solution, a bridge, an implant or a partial denture, each costing more than the root canal that would have kept your own tooth. Where a tooth genuinely cannot be saved we say so and extraction becomes the honest answer, but a savable tooth is almost always worth saving. Call (816) 439-7715.