The Loop Endodontics offers many types of treatment options to best service our patients needs.  

• Root Canals
• Endodontic Retreatment
• Apicoectomy
• Cracked Teeth
• Traumatic Dental Injuries

Root Canals

What happens during root canal treatment? Learn more about this quick, comfortable procedure that can relieve your pain and save your natural tooth.

Root CanalThere’s no need to be worried if your dentist or endodontist prescribes a root canal procedure to treat a damaged or diseased tooth. Millions of teeth are treated and saved this way each year, relieving pain and making teeth healthy again.
Inside your tooth, beneath the white enamel and a hard layer called dentin, is a soft tissue called pulp. This tissue contains blood vessels, nerves and connective tissue, which help grow the root of your tooth during its development. A fully developed tooth can survive without the pulp because the tooth continues to be nourished by the tissues surrounding it.

Modern endodontic treatment is nothing like those old sayings! It’s very similar to a routine filling and can usually be completed in one or two appointments, depending upon the condition of your tooth and your personal circumstances. Getting a root canal is relatively painless and extremely effective. You’ll be back to smiling, biting and chewing with ease in no time.

Saving the natural tooth with root canal treatment has many advantages:

• Efficient chewing
• Normal biting force and sensation
• Natural appearance
• Protects other teeth from excessive wear or strain

Apicoectomy

If your dentist is recommending an apicoectomy, it means that your tooth cannot be successfully treated with conventional root canal treatment (which will be described below). An apicoectomy is a minor surgical procedure in which the very tip of the tooth’s root is removed (“apico” – apex or end; “ectomy” – removal) and sealed. It is usually performed by an endodontist (“endo” – inside; “dont” – tooth), a dentist who specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of tooth pain from root canal disease.

Saving Teeth With Conventional Root Canal Treatment

As the illustration on this page shows, a space inside the tooth called the pulp chamber houses the pulp — the living tissue (nerves, blood vessels and connective tissues) that keeps the tooth alive. A root canal system branches from this chamber. Endodontic treatment, commonly known as root canal treatment, is needed when the pulp becomes inflamed or infected. This can happen for several reasons: deep tooth decay; repeated dental procedures to a tooth (replacing a large filling, for example); or traumatic damage such as a crack, chip or even a fracture. If the pulp dies, the pulp chamber and canals can become infected. That infection can eventually spread into the surrounding bone and other tissues around the tip of the root.

Endodontists use radiographs (x-rays), or sometimes CBCT scans (cone beam-computed tomography) that create three-dimensional views, to examine root canals and diagnose disease that might otherwise go undetected.

Conventional root canal treatment involves drilling a small access hole into the pulp chamber through the biting surface of a back tooth, or from behind a front tooth. Inflamed or infected tissue is removed from the pulp chamber and root canals, and the space is disinfected, shaped with tiny flexible instruments, filled, and sealed. A temporary or permanent filling material will then be placed to cover the access hole. A permanent cap (crown) is often used to replace lost tooth structure and to protect the tooth from biting stresses and further damage.

If At First It Didn’t Succeed

As you can see, a lot of work goes into treating root canal infection. But root canals may become re-infected for a variety of reasons: new or recurrent decay; previously undetected accessory (extra) canals branching from the primary canal at the root end of the tooth; and, occasionally, calcification (narrowing and hardening) of canals — a reaction to trauma or aging that can block the canals and prevent them from being fully cleaned by conventional root canal treatment.

Sometimes, conventional root canal retreatment may not be feasible, or may even jeopardize the tooth. For example, accessing the canals of a tooth that has a crown and a post in place may require taking apart the entire restoration, which could further weaken the tooth. In such cases, a better alternative is to treat infection from the root end of the tooth (instead of the crown end) with an apicoectomy.

Traumatic Dental Injuries

Traumatic dental injuries often occur as a result of an accident or sports injury. The majority of these injuries are minor – chipped teeth. It’s less common to dislodge your tooth or have it knocked completely out but these injuries are more severe. Treatment depends on the type, location and severity of each injury. Regardless of the extent of the injury, your tooth requires immediate examination by a dentist or an endodontist. Sometimes, your neighboring teeth suffer an additional, unnoticed injury that can only be detected by a thorough dental exam. 

Endodontists are dentists who specialize in treating traumatic dental injuries. With their advanced skills, techniques and technologies they often can save injured teeth. If you have a cracked or injured tooth, call us right away. 

Source: aae.org

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