Retreatment and Surgical Procedures

I was told I would need my root canal retreated. What is that?

The canals of some roots are more complicated than others. Sometimes the infection of the canal is not eliminated following root canal therapy. This may not be known immediately after treatment is done, and in some cases several years after treatment. In other cases, a treated root canal can become contaminated if it is not properly restored afterwards, or if decay develops around the edges of the crown. In these cases, we remove the rubber canal filling, and then proceed to clean and disinfect the canals again. Since these procedures are more complicated and time consuming, they are often done in two visits.

I was told I would need root canal surgery, what is that?

Most root canals are treated non-surgically. In some cases, there may be some reason why non-surgical treatment or retreatment cannot be performed. In these cases, we can still save some of these teeth by surgically operating on the ends of the roots (apicoectomy). This is done in our office with local anesthetics. We will usually want to provide a consultation appointment prior to scheduling a surgical treatment appointment. Other surgical procedures that we do include repairing damage to root surfaces and removing cracked roots from multi-rooted teeth.

Do you do root canals on baby teeth?

Baby teeth can become infected. Usually they are extracted, but sometimes the retention of the baby tooth is critical for maintaining the proper space in the arch for the adult tooth. Occasionally root canals are done on these teeth so that they do not need to be extracted before the adult tooth is ready to erupt.