Anyone experienced "half" a root canal? (tooth, dentist, infection)

[howard555]

I never heard of the term until a dentist mentioned it. There is an area medical center that offers dental one day a week. We just went for a checkup and cleaning. The wait times on appointments can be months so the dentist said if ever had an emergency (pain) to just show up and they would work you in and remove the root. I asked if that was a root canal and she said no it was half a root canal.
This sounds like they remove the infected pulp, clean, disinfect, and do not fill or seal. (?)

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During root canal the infected pulp is removed and the inside is carefully cleaned and disinfected, then filled and sealed with a rubber-like material called gutta-percha. Afterwards, the tooth is restored with a crown or filling for protection.

Root Canal Treatment - Get the fact about root canals | AAEorg

[toofache32]

The root is not removed. That is called a tooth extraction. I don't know why people think roots are removed in a root canal. The pulp (living tissue) is removed in a root canal which is inside the tooth and does go down into the root. The other half is filling up the empty canal with an inert material to seal it off. Many times for a tooth emergency they will simply removed the infected pulp to get rid of pain. Since these are last minute add-on cases to the schedule, there is often not enough time to fill the canal in the same appointment. Sometimes the canal is left open anyway to drain if the infection is really bad.