Root Canal Retreatment
With the appropriate care, your teeth that have had endodontic treatment are anticipated to last as long as other natural teeth. Yet, a tooth that has received treatment may fail to heal or pain may continue to exist. Sometimes, the pain may occur months or years after treatment. If so, Endodontic Retreatment may be needed.
Improper healing of an initial root canal may be caused by:
- Curved or narrow canals were not treated during the initial treatment.
- Complicated canals went undetected during the initial treatment.
- The crown or restoration was not placed within the appropriate amount of time following the procedure.
- The crown or restoration did not prevent saliva from contaminating the inside of the tooth.
In some cases, new problems can influence a tooth that was successfully treated:
- New decay can expose a root canal filling material, causing infection.
- A cracked or loose restoration can expose the tooth to new infection.
There is one main difference between an initial root canal and a retreatment procedure. A root canal treated tooth will have root canal filler inside of the canals. This needs to be removed in order to properly retreat the tooth. Then the canals will be thoroughly cleaned and sealed with new root canal filler material.
An alternative is extraction of the tooth. The extracted tooth can then be replaced with an implant, bridge, or removable partial denture to restore chewing function and to prevent adjacent teeth from shifting. Because these options require extensive surgery or dental procedures on adjacent healthy teeth, they can be far more costly and time consuming than retreatment and restoration of the natural tooth.
No matter how effective modern tooth replacements are -and they can be very effective- nothing is as good as your natural tooth. You’ve already made an investment in saving your tooth. The payoff for choosing retreatment could be a healthy, functioning natural tooth for many years to come