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Most people brace themselves for the root canal itself and give almost no thought to the fortnight that follows. Then they get home, the anaesthetic wears off, and the questions start. Is this ache normal? Can I eat? Why does it still feel odd when I bite? Root canal therapy side effects are usually mild and short-lived, but nobody tells you what "normal" actually looks like day by day. So here's the honest version, from a practice that treats these every week across Wollondi

A lot of parents wait until their child complains of a sore tooth before booking a dental appointment. That's actually later than it needs to be. The Australian Dental Association recommends a child's first dental visit by their first birthday, and here at Appin Dental Surgery, we see plenty of one-year-olds with barely a handful of teeth in for their very first check. Sound later than you expected? You're not alone. Here's what the timing actually looks like, and what to exp

Around 1 in 3 Australian adults who still have their own teeth have at least one tooth with untreated decay right now. That figure comes from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, and it matches what we find at Appin Dental Surgery during routine check-ups. Most of those people have no idea. So if you're at the bathroom mirror wondering what a decaying tooth looks like, the honest answer is that it depends almost entirely on how far along it is. Early decay looks li

The patients who worry us most aren't the ones clutching their jaw in the waiting room. They're the ones who say the pain stopped three weeks ago, so they assumed it sorted itself out. It didn't. A dental abscess that goes quiet has usually just killed the nerve inside the tooth. The infection is still there, still spreading, and now there's no early warning system left. We see this pattern often enough at Appin Dental Surgery that it's worth explaining what's actually happen

You spit into the sink and there's pink in the foam. Maybe you noticed it last week too, and told yourself you'd just brushed a bit hard. That's the moment most people first meet gingivitis, and it's the moment I'd most like you to pay attention to. Gingivitis is the earliest stage of gum disease, and it's the stage where everything is still fixable. That matters, because the next stage isn't. What Is Gingivitis? Gingivitis is inflammation of the gums caused by bacterial plaq

That sharp zing when cold water hits a tooth isn't random, and it isn't something to just put up with. Sensitive teeth almost always mean the protective outer layer has worn thin somewhere, leaving the softer dentine underneath exposed. A systematic review in Clinical Oral Investigations found that around 1 in 4 adults report dentine hypersensitivity, with cases peaking between 30 and 40 years of age. It's one of the most common complaints heard in the chair across Wollondill

Most of the time, when your jaw hurts on one side, it's not the scary thing you're imagining. It's your jaw joint or the muscles around it, usually from grinding or clenching, you don't even know you're doing. The team at Appin Dental Surgery sees this every week, and the pattern is almost always the same: the pain shows up on one side, it's worse in the morning, or when you chew, and people have spent two nights on Google convincing themselves it's something terrible. So let