Endodontic Retreatment

Just like any other dental procedure, initial root canal therapy can fail for several reasons (listed below). Patients may or may not experience pain when root canal therapy fails, but an infection is typically present unless the Endodontic Retreatment is being done for restorative purposes. Endodontic Retreatment has good success rates and should be considered on restorable teeth.

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Improper healing may be caused by:

• Inability to clean canals during the initial treatment.

• Complex canal anatomy or undetected canals during initial treatment

• Final restoration not placed within the appropriate amount of time following the procedure.

• Final restoration saliva and other contaminates inside of the tooth.

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In some cases, a new problem can influence a tooth that was successfully treated:

• Recurrent decay exposing the root canal filling material, thus causing infection.

• Restoration that are cracked or loose can expose the tooth to new infection.

• Traumatic injury causing damage to the tooth and exposing the root canal filling material

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After proper clinical diagnosis to determine the tooth needs retreatment, the doctor reopens the tooth to remove the previous root canal filling material. The tooth and root canals will be cleaned and carefully examined under the microscope. Once the canals are determined clean, the doctor will fill and seal the canals and place a temporary filling in the tooth. At this point, the patient will need to return to their dentist as soon as possible in order to have a new crown or restoration placed on the tooth.

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