Danis Lyle Laizure, DMD,FAGD

I have found straight zirconia crowns are a bit unaesthetic for the front teeth. In general, they look like monochromatic pieces of chalk. They may be “stained” to give them a more natural appearance if they are stained, skillfully but the stain wears off slowly and the “chalk” appearance eventually manifests itself. That said, they are strong and durable and there is more of a chance for the tooth to fracture under the crown than for a pure zirconia crown to fracture or chip.
A layered Zirconia, which is offered by many laboratories, look very nice and are quite durable if not as fracture resistant as unlayered zirconia. The skill of the laboratory technician, in conjunction with adequate preparation by your dentist will determine the outcome of the final crown.
As with many questions the specifics of a given situation modify the response to a general question.

The most common "bumps" I am questioned about occur on the boarder of the lower jaw on the inside. These are called "torus mandubularis" and are a fairly common variation of normal. It is not uncommon for a patient to have lived with these bumps for years and not noticed them until some event such as some trauma draws attention to them. Generally they are of no consequence.
On occasion, I have seem these boney protuberances become so large that they nearly touch in the middle of the mouth but they are usually much smaller. I personally have small to moderate sized ones that are the most bothersome when I have to have dental X-rays taken. Then they get bumped or abraded and are uncomfortable for awhile.
One time when I was in the service I had a young dental assistant who had tori (plural for torus) that nearly touched and there was barely room for the frenum (the little tissue band that holds the tongue to the floor of the mouth and inside of the front of the lower jaw) to pass through. She asked me to remove the bone and initially I declined as they really were not causing any problems that I could document. A few weeks later she came to me with tears in her eyes and she wrote on a piece of paper that she had a peanut stuck under the bumps that she could not get it out. I removed the peanut and she informed me that I was going to remove the tori. I did and she was greatly relived.
There is another type of torus that occurs on the roof of the mouth or hard palate. It is called a torus palatinus and is also harmless. These generally are not removed unless they interfere with the fit of a denture or other appliance that must fit over the palate. They vary in size but again are harmless.
Both the mandibular and palatal tori are cover by relatively thin soft tissue and are, therefore, fairly easy to abrade or rub if irritated. Because of this characteristic often when a denture must be placed over these areas the bone needs to be removed. Usually the bone growths does not recur after removal but form time to time they may at which point they must again be removed.
There is another type of boney bump that can occur on the outside of the upper or lower jaw. For some reason these boney protuberances are call "exostoses" (exostosis, singular). They may actually appear as a boney ledge or ridge on the side of the jaw proper at or very near the crest of the gum tissue near the teeth. Again these can be removed if they present a problem. They may or may not recur after their removal.
I have made some vigorous assumptions related to the initial question and perhaps have jumped to some erroneous conclusions because of those assumptions. There are obviously other types of "bumps" that can occur in a patient's mouth.
There are soft tissue bumps and swellings that can be neoplastic (tumors both benign and malignant) and reactive (infections and irritations). These can occur virtually anywhere in the mouth. They can be firm or fluctuant (squishy). These need to be evaluated by a dentist or physician and diagnosed based upon their findings.

The short, don't beat around the bush, answer is any time between 20 minutes to a couple of hours. There are so many variables to consider, even with a young person like yourself that it would be difficult to take this short answer to the bank.
This root canal thing seems to be a common theme lately. There are a lot of questions related to root canals and there seem to be some misconceptions too. To adequately and accurately answer your questions there are a couple more pieces of information I need for your background. Your age is helpful although I do not think your gender is too contributive in relation to the length of time a root canal might take to accomplish.
So, let’s start with what we know about your situation and then progress to what other information might be helpful.
Your youth is quite helpful in that any tooth will be less likely to be "sclerotic" or filled in on the inside of the tooth in your body's attempt to heal the tooth naturally. The natural process of healing a damaged tooth, from whatever cause, can ultimately limit and make the completion of a root canal treatment more difficult to accomplish. The younger the patient is, the less likely the tooth is to have laid down secondary dentin which is the process by which the damaged tooth tries to isolate the dental pulp or as it sometimes referred to as the "nerve".
The next question is what type of a tooth is it and where is it in your mouth? The anatomy of every tooth varies and with that variation the number of root canals present also varies. In this case the term "root canal" refers to the anatomic structure within the center of the root of a tooth that gives rise to the name of the procedure which is properly referred to as "root canal therapy". The canal is quite literally a canal or "tube" that runs from near the tip of the root into the pulp chamber of the tooth.
Front teeth and several of the premolar teeth usually have only one canal although there are variations in virtually all teeth that might have a front tooth or premolar with two or even three (rarely even more) canals. This variation is the reason careful examination with x-rays is required lest one of the canals inadvertently be missed in the procedure. Missing a canal usually results in failure of the therapy and then either having to have the procedure redone, a secondary procedure such as an apicoectomy performed or, in a worst case, can ultimately lead to the loss of the tooth at a later time.
Premolar teeth, particularly the upper ones, usually have two canals although variation is common there too. Again, a careful evaluation including x-rays is important as well as a tactile (feeling) sense of the inside of the tooth as the procedure is performed is important.
Finally, molars have the greatest and most common variation of the internal anatomy of any teeth. Maxillary (upper) first molars are a considerable challenge because of their variation. It is most common for this tooth to have three roots and four canals. The mesial buccal root (front outside root) very often has two canals but, and this is important, not always. The issue is that we become so concerned about finding the small secondary canal in this root that the dentist may damage the tooth (root) looking for something that isn't there this time. We're in trouble if we miss it (it's hard to find) and we're in trouble if we try too vigorously to find it when it does not exist. On the other hand, some molars have only one canal. It is all quite interesting when trying to get it right. The bottom line is that molars may have four or more canals and as few as one canal.
The next concern is the anatomy of the patient's mouth. A tooth that is at the front of a patient's mouth usually is easier to access than a tooth near the back. Not too hard to figure out, right? Now let's throw the variable of how wide the patient can open their mouth. Sometimes a patient with an infection cannot open as wide as they usually can, and this restricts access to the sick tooth particularly in the back. Sometimes just the anatomy of the persons mouth or lips restricts access even near the front. All these variable effects the time necessary to accomplish root canal therapy.
I suppose the most truthful answer as to how long it takes to do a root canal is that it will take until the dentist is done. Boy that was a big help!

The real question is, do you brush your teeth before a cleaning?
The short answer is yes I do and I hope you do too. It makes working in your mouth much more pleasant for the hygienist and the Doc.
The thing is if you do not take routinely good care of your teeth by brushing and flossing every day you wont be able to hide the fact from the dental professionals. If you do take good care of your teeth that will be obvious too, even if there is some remnants of lunch (todays) left. You may remove the plaque of the recent days but your gums are going to be inflamed and bleed which is a giveaway for not taking good care of your mouth. It is still more pleasant for the dental team to work in a relatively recently cleaned mouth that bleeds and has “boggy” gums than to have to work around and through a gob of debris left over from last weeks lunch.
There might be someone (dentist, hygienist) that would say it would be better to be “au natural“ when you came in for cleaning because then they can see where you are missing. In truth, I would like you to have at it with the brush before you come because then I can see where you really are missing even when you are really trying to impress me, or my gorgeous hygienist, with your dexterity and commitment. Then we don’t have to waste time at our sink with you showing us what you cannot do. I do not mean to be mean or derogatory only to point out that where you miss is where you are going to miss whether we are watching or not. Further where you clean, even if it is everywhere and perfect shows us that you can do the job when you are properly motivated.
I would always prefer to have a patient do their home hygiene as soon as possible before coming in to see us.

There are multiple answers to this question each of which depend on the physical state of the tooth prior to having the root canal. The general answer would be to eat virtually anything you would normally eat if the tooth is not uncomfortable. If the tooth hurts don't eat that particular food as it may be too course or tough for the tooth to tolerate immediately following the treatment. If there is constant pain be sure to see your dentist as generally a tooth at least starts to feel better after root canal treatment. I have found the most common reason for post operative pain following a root canal is a premature contact (high filling or restoration) that contacts its apposing tooth before the rest of the teeth contact. If the tooth was badly broken down prior to the root canal treatment you might be cautioned by your dentist to stay with somewhat softer food until a final restoration, usually a crown, is placed to protect the tooth from fracture since the root canal has allowed the tooth to become pain free and biting might be too vigorous.

In truth while you might delay healing with some activity or product, there is really no way to make hard or soft tissue heal faster than mother nature allows or dictates. Gentle rinsing with warm salt water after an appropriate amount of time has past to establish a blood clot can help keep the surgical area clean and reduce irritation. Removing debris (food, plaque, etc.) with a very soft brush can also be soothing and keep local inflammation down. We suggest using an infant's tooth brush and the operative word is gentle.
There are two types of wounds to consider too. If a tooth that is "erupted" or exposed is removed the tooth socket must heal by filling in and growing epithelial cells over the space. This is referred to as healing by secondary intention and it will take longer to heal than a tooth that has been be exposed by "laying a flap" of tissue that can then be sutured (stitched) closed. The edges of the surgical wound are brought together and touch each other. The epithelial cells then grow across the incision space relatively rapidly. This is referred to as healing by primary intention. As a child you likely skinned your knee at one time or another. The scab took some time to eventually flake off. That is an example of secondary intention as the cells had to grow all the way across the skinned knee. You also likely cut your self and even with out stitches the edges of the cut approximated each other and the injury healed much faster. That is an example of healing by primary intention.
Finally, while the question was specifically about making "gums heal faster," we must recognize that any time a tooth is removed there is a bone injury that will take additional time to heal whether "exposed" or covered by soft tissue. Some tenderness may persist during this bone healing despite soft tissue (gums) being comfortable.

Generally, a tooth feels better after the completion of root canal treatment. This is not always the case and there are several mitigating factors.
The most common reason I have found for a tooth to hurt after a root canal is because the tooth contacts its apposing tooth prematurely, the tooth or filling is "high." Usually a quick trip to the dentist to "adjust" the high spot will relieve the discomfort. It should be noted that a tooth that did not touch prior to treatment may actually touch after treatment because of the inflammatory process that may occur in the tooth's ligament space. This inflammation can, on occasion, "push" the tooth slightly out of its socket. Even a very slight extrusion of the tooth from its normal position can cause a premature contact which may be painful until it is relieved.
There are a number of other causes for post operative pain related to root canals. While not as common or as easily dealt with as a "high" tooth or filling, residual or recurrent infection must be considered. The point of a root canal is to remove dead tissue and bacteria from the inside of the tooth. Once in awhile (actually much more often than symptoms, pain, indicate) bacteria and other debris are pushed out of the tip of the root during treatment. This debris causes inflammation and makes the tooth much more sensitive to percussion until your body resolves or eliminates the offending debris.
Because of the variables as to why a tooth might hurt following a root canal I recommend you return to your dentist and have it evaluated there.

An immediate denture is immediate. Teeth out - denture in. There is some adjustments likely as architecture of bone and mouth modify over a few months but there is no time that a patient has to be without a prosthesis.