Patient Education Center
 How do I know if I need an endodontic procedure?
Your tooth has a nerve. These nerves are housed in the canal and chamber, hence root canals and pulp chamber. When the nerve inside the tooth becomes inflamed or dies, one will experience tooth pain. Whenever you experience pain on biting and tapping on the tooth, or when you have spontaneous and lingering pain from the tooth, you should contact your dentist and have your tooth evaluated. The tooth may need a root canal treatment.
What is an endodontist and what do they do?
Endodontists are dental specialists who are trained in providing root canal treatment. About 80% of root canal procedures are completed by general dentists. However, if tooth canal anatomy is complex, or when a root canal treated tooth needs non-surgical retreatment or surgical retreatment, then the treatment may be referred to an endodontist.
In additional to root canal treatment, an endodontist also performs the surgical procedure for the previously treated root canal procedure (apicoectomy), non-surgical retreatment, evaluates teeth that have been in a traumatic accident, immature root regeneration and performs internal bleaching of a darkened tooth from trauma.
Will additional radiographs be required and can I use the ones taken in my referral dentist’s office?
X-ray radiograph is an indispensable tool for endodontics since almost all the work done cannot be observed under the naked eye. Hence it is important that we have excellent quality digital radiographs for diagnosis, evaluation, and treatment of root canal procedures. Often, the radiographs provided by other office are either dated, have unusable resolution, incorrect angulation, or do not show the entire root. Therefore, please be prepared to take additional radiographs.
Can I book a consultation and have the treatment done on the same day?
This depends on what procedure is recommended and how much remaining time we have after a thorough examination is completed. If the proposed treatment is a root canal treatment or a non-surgical retreatment, and if time permits, then treatment can be started. Any surgical procedure will need to be scheduled.
Can my procedure be done in one sitting?
This really depends on several factors. In general, I do not like to complete the case in one visit for the following reasons:| • |
When there is a large infection, swelling, and pain
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Tooth with severe extreme pain
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Difficult retreatment that requires much time to disassemble and remove of previous filling material
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Failed retreatment cases with large PA lesion and symptoms
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When spatial space infection is present
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Inflammatory apical root resorption |
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