Endodontics

Endometer Technische Wurzelbehandlung RVG - Radio Visiography

What is an endodontic procedure?

Inside every healthy and vital tooth we can find a pulp (a plexus of nerves and blood vessels). It nourishes the tooth and it stimulates the sensation of hot and cold. In case the pulp is damaged by a bacterial infection, trauma, tooth fracture, etc. it needs to be removed from the tooth. This procedure is called endodontic therapy. The purpose of the therapy is to remove the damaged pulp from the tooth since it can cause the spread of the infection into the neighboring areas of the tissue, the periodontium and the bone.

Is the procedure painful?

The treatment is conducted with a local anesthetic and is completely painless. After the anesthetic wears off, the use of analgetics is advised.

How is the procedure done?

The canals need to be thoroughly cleaned of the residual inflamed tissue and disinfected so as to reduce the number of pathogen micro-organisms in them. The more thorough the procedure, the greater are the chances for successful treatment. It is extremely important to determine the length of the root canal by using a device called an endometer to measure them. Since the system of root canals can be very diverse, from the simple ones to very intricate ones (bent canals of different diameter), it is absolutely necessary to perform X-ray imaging before and after the procedure and in this way control it. The canals are processed with different needles, either by hand or using the Ni-Ti (nickel-titanium) rotary instruments. After it has been processed and cleaned it is necessary to hermetically seal the canal. We fill them with sealing paste and gutta-percha sticks. Simpler canals can be processed and sealed during a single visit, whereas the complex multiple root teeth it possible to process and seal in two or three visits. The final goal is to get a hermetically sealed, water and airtight canal.

Post op care

Since the majority of treated teeth have a severely damaged crown, after the filling is in its place, it is common to set a intracanal post (parapulpal pin) and reconstruct the tooth with composite filling. If the majority of the crown is missing, the composite filling can be too large to withstand the force of mastication and there is high probability of tooth fracture. To avoid such a thing from happening we recommend that a ceramic crown is made. This will allow the tooth to remain useful and functional. Although the whole procedure might seem very complex, our goal is not. We want to keep every natural tooth. On the other hand, tooth extraction is our last resort, an extreme measure which entails a whole range of consequences (atrophy, loss of function, compromised aesthetics). In the end, endodontic treatment is far more favorable than tooth extraction or replacing the tooth with an implant.