Listen or Read Dr. Vitale’s Monthly Podcast Interview!
Topic – Root Canals and Fillings
Below you will find an easy to read transcript of Dr. John Vitale’s interview on the razorcast™ monthly podcast. You can click to listen to the podcast or simply read the easy to follow transcript below. Enjoy!
Podcast Interview:
RC: Hello everyone, this is Liz Harvey coming to you from our razorcast™ studios in New York City where we are dedicated to bringing you top quality advice from many of the leading expert professionals across the United States.
In today’s episode we are speaking with Dr. John Vitale. Dr. Vitale is the founder of Dr. John R. Vitale, DMD at Port Liberte, a general dentistry and cosmetic dentistry practice in Jersey City, New Jersey. He has an extensive dental background that began at Iona College and then at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. Dr. Vitale has been practicing in the area for over 35 years and is currently a member of the International Congress of Implantology. He is also certified in BOTOX® and dermal fillers and he continues his education in the dental field with monthly classes. Dr. Vitale has also had the pleasure of traveling to Honduras and Panama to provide charity dental care to needy patients.
Dr. Vitale is widely considered to be one of the top dentists in the country and he is also a contributing member of our national network of industry professionals.
Today we are going to talk about a very important topic:
Root Canals and Fillings
RC: Hi Dr. Vitale how are you today?
Dr. John Vitale: Very well, how are you?
RC: Good, thanks for joining us, glad you’re here.
Question 1: Can you explain what a root canal is and why it is needed?
RC: So can you explain to us what a root canal is and why it is needed?
Dr. John Vitale: Well a root canal is needed when you have an infection of the nerve that is inside your tooth. Generally, the nerve inside the chamber of the tooth gets inflamed either from decay or from extreme exposure to hot and cold or from trauma. And unfortunately with nerves in people’s mouths, the inflammation of the nerve is not a reversible process. When you have an infected nerve or an inflamed nerve on your wrist or your arm, medication can be given and the inflammation goes down and resolves itself and the nerves continue to live. In your mouth, it’s unfortunately a one way situation.
Question 2: What are some symptoms people experience that let them know they might need a root canal?
RC: And what are some symptoms people experience that let them know they might need a root canal?
Dr. John Vitale: Well, I think the three biggest symptoms are pain from heat and cold, pain to percussion when you touch the tooth and often enough just the dull aching pain in the area around the infected tooth.
Question 3: After the root canal is completed, what is the next step?
RC: Alright and after the root canal is completed and it’s all said and done, what is the next step?
Dr. John Vitale: Well after a root canal is completed one has to understand that the tooth, while it is in your head, is dead. And so it does not have a nutrient supply and I often talk of it as a piece of wood in your mouth. Unfortunately it’s brittle and if you bite down on it in the wrong way you can break it and so what one must do is place a post and core inside the tooth. Either bond a composite resin filling to the tooth but it is advised more often than not (almost entirely actually) to have a crown placed on that tooth.
Question 4: We know fillings are required for cavities. Can you explain what composite fillings are and how they are different than the traditional silver fillings?
RC: Okay and we know fillings are required for cavities. Can you explain what composite fillings are and how they are different than the traditional silver fillings?
Dr. John Vitale: Well a traditional silver filling is a metal filling. It’s composed of silver, mercury and a couple of other different metals. And a composite resin is a ground glass or glass bead that’s ground up and it’s placed in a matrix – a resin material it’s called. It contains no metal whatsoever and it’s bonded to your teeth as opposed to placed in mechanically where the base of the tooth has to be wider than the top of the tooth so that the filling does not fall out. With a composite resin, we use chemicals in the mouth to bond the tooth to the tooth structure so in effect your tooth and your composite resin become one.
Question 5: What is the process like for getting a filling? Do you use Novocain or another method for numbing the area to reduce pain?
RC: So what is the process like for getting a filling? Do you use Novocain or another method for numbing the area to help reduce pain?
Dr. John Vitale: Sure. We use what we call a pre-anesthetic and it’s usually a swab of benzocaine or benzocaine-like ointment on the tissue and that numbs the surface tissue of the tooth. And after that we use a fine gauge syringe that we infiltrate the area that we place the benzocaine on and that really lessens the intrusion into the tissue substantially. Most people never even feel the pinch anymore. And then we just slowly administer an anesthetic, generally lidocaine or carbocaine and we wait for the person to get numb then we start doing our work.
RC: Great, well thank you so much Dr. Vitale. We know you’re extremely busy so I just want to thank you for all your time and help today.
Dr. John Vitale: My pleasure.
RC: Thanks and for our listeners across the country, if you are interested in speaking with Dr. John Vitale, you can either go online at www.drjohnrvitale.com or call 201-521-9800 to schedule an appointment.
On behalf of our entire team at razorcast™, we want to thank you for listening and we look forward to bringing you more top quality content from our country’s leading industry professionals.
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