Fixing Root Canals That Fail

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Dental News
It's a fact that some root canals just don't take. But now a new study done at Columbia University compared several ways to treat a root-canals-gone-bad and found that the most cost-effective way was to surgically repair the tooth.

The study appears in the March issue of the Journal of Endodontics and found that the least cost-effective treatment for failed root canals was removing the tooth and placing an implant in the bone. Although success rate in this option was quite high, it was also the most expensive.

Surgically repairing a root canal (called a apicoectomy) is a procedure performed by either an endodontist or oral surgeon and involves cutting into the gum to access the root tip of the affected tooth. The root tip and any infected tissue are then removes and the end of the root canal is cleaned and sealed.

Columbia University researchers compared four of the most common options for failed root canals in permanent molars, the options being:

* Redoing the root canal and placing a crown on the tunes
* Surgical repair of the tooth (endodontic microsurgery)
* Extraction of tooth and placement of a new bridge with a false tooth
* Extraction of tooth and replaced with a single-tooth implant in the bone

Treating a root canal involves removing the pulp tissue inside the affected tooth's root pulp root which has usually become infected. The pulp is replaced with a non-living material and a crown is then placed on top of the tooth.



Related Blog Posts
Common Myths About Root Canals ( July 2, 2010 )
Saving A Tooth Not Always Better Than An Implant ( September 2, 2009 )
Dental Implants = More Visits Than Root Canals ( November 22, 2008 )

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