Treatment and retreatment of tooth canals when necessary. Stages, photos, description of procedures

Tooth canal treatment: when is it necessary and how is it carried out?

Tooth canal treatment is a procedure that is carried out for certain indications and allows you to stop active inflammation in the internal tissues of the tooth and avoid the removal of a dental unit. Treatment of tooth canals has its own specifics and is complex; only an experienced and competent specialist can carry out the procedure efficiently. In the article we will look in detail at the process of root canal treatment: we will find out under what circumstances the procedure is carried out, how it goes, what methods are used for treating tooth canals.

Where is the tooth canal located, how is it structured

Human teeth have almost the same anatomical structure, including three main parts: crown, neck and root. Inside the tooth there is a pulp chamber, from which canals originate and extend all the way to the root. The pulp chamber contains the pulp or nerve of the tooth, which is a bundle of nerve fibers and blood vessels. Nerve fibers and vessels also pass through the entire internal space of the dental canal. The shape of the tooth canals can be either straight or curved, and their number varies depending on the type of tooth. Thus, the canines and incisors of the upper jaw have one canal, the canines and incisors of the lower jaw have two. There may be two or three canals in molars, and the maximum number of canals is observed in wisdom teeth - from three to five. The exact number of dental canals is determined using radiographic examination.

As mentioned above, the shape of the canals can have bends and turns, which complicates the process of their high-quality cleaning and treatment. Meanwhile, when treating canals, it is important to thoroughly clean their internal space - otherwise it will not be possible to stop the inflammatory process and save the diseased tooth.

What diseases are they susceptible to?

If problematic root canals are not treated, there are risks of serious consequences. The inflammatory process will not go away on its own, but can spread to nearby tissues and harm the entire body. It can negatively affect the organs located in the upper and lower jaw. There is a danger that a constant source of infection in the oral cavity will provoke the development of the following diseases:

lymphadenitis;
cellulitis or abscess of soft facial tissues;
endocarditis;
pyelonephritis;
orthodontic sinusitis;
sepsis.

Indications for dental canal treatment

Tooth canal treatment is a specific dental procedure that is advisable to perform in the following clinical cases:

When an active inflammatory process is detected inside the root of a dental unit. The inflammatory process in this part of the tooth can lead to gradual tissue necrosis. If tissue necrosis begins, the diseased tooth will have to be removed.

The condition is diagnosed by radiography;

Treatment of tooth canals is required for pulpitis - inflammation affecting the pulp bundle;

Endodontic treatment is carried out for periodontitis, a disease affecting the apical part of the tooth root;

In some cases, cleaning and treatment of dental canals is required for advanced forms of caries.

Dental canal treatment is also indicated for abscesses, the onset of an inflammatory process under an old filling, or a fractured tooth root. The need for measures to treat tooth canals may be indicated by such symptoms as: severe, excruciating pain in the tooth, occurring mainly at night, swelling of soft tissues, discoloration of the gums and tooth enamel.

In some cases, tooth canal treatment is carried out before prosthetics. The nerve is removed from the tooth, and the canal cavities are cleaned, treated with antiseptic drugs and filled.

What can be seen in the photo?

The canal must be completely sealed, that is, to the top - the material in this case is highlighted in a bright white color, which should be filled to its entire length.

It should not only be filled to its entire length, but also have no gaps on the sides - this means that the material should be tightly obturated. The image should not show pieces of hanging gutta-percha, smeared material or dark gaps.

By following all stages of filling, you can avoid tooth inflammation. Otherwise, you will have to waste a lot of time and effort restoring the lost tooth.

Main stages of root canal treatment

Treatment of tooth canals is a complex, specific process that includes several successive stages. Below we will consider all stages of the treatment process in detail.

Diagnostics

During the initial visit to the dentist, the doctor will conduct a thorough examination of the patient’s oral cavity and will also prescribe x-rays. An image of the tooth will allow you to assess the condition of the dental canals, see their number, determine the stage of development of the inflammatory process, and also select adequate treatment for a specific clinical case.

Anesthesia

To gain access to the canals of a tooth, the dentist will drill out the coronal part of the tooth to reach the pulp chamber, behind which the canals are located. Both the pulp and the canals are penetrated by nerve fibers and therefore the specialist’s actions can cause some discomfort to the patient. To relieve a person of discomfort, local anesthesia is performed before starting root canal treatment. The drug is selected individually for each patient.

Moisture insulation of the area of the diseased tooth

To prevent pathogenic microorganisms that may be contained in saliva from entering the internal space of the tooth, the area of the diseased tooth is first protected from moisture by covering with a special latex bandage - a rubber dam.

Reaming a tooth

To gain access to the dental canals, the doctor will drill the tooth, removing all tissue affected by caries. The access hole is made either on the chewing surface of the tooth (when treating molars) or on the inside (when treating incisors and canines). After drilling, the doctor will remove either the entire pulp bundle or only part of the tissue affected by the inflammatory process.

Treatment of dental canal cavities

For high-quality treatment of dental canals, a specialized tool is used - files. Before the cleaning process, it is important to obtain detailed information on the structure of the dental canals, as well as their length. To do this, a photograph of the diseased tooth is taken, and a special type of device is used - an apex locator. The dentist will use the files to clean the canal cavities, and then rinse them with an antiseptic solution and treat them with antibacterial agents. During cleaning and antiseptic treatment, the dentist will expand the cavity of the canals, clean and smooth their internal surfaces. Then the cavities of the dental canals are thoroughly dried with paper points.

Next, the doctor puts medicine into the canal cavity, places a temporary filling on the tooth and sends the patient home. After a few days, you should come back to the dentist to evaluate the results of the treatment. If the image shows that the inflammation has been stopped, the canals are filled.

Sealing

Gutta-percha pins are used to fill dental canals. It is important that the dental canal is sealed correctly and efficiently, otherwise a recurrence of inflammation is possible and the tooth cannot be saved. After filling the canals, the crown part of the tooth is restored with a photopolymer filling or orthopedic structures. It will be useful to know that mild pain in the tooth within 14 days after the procedure is considered normal by dentists. Taking painkillers prescribed by your doctor will help eliminate discomfort. However, if the pain does not go away, its character is sharp, and does not subside even after taking anesthetics, you should immediately contact the dentist!

For what reason do you have to re-treat?

Reasons for root canal retreatment:

pain after filling;
when tapping, sensitivity appears;
slight swelling;
insufficient filling of the canal with paste;
use of quickly deteriorating filling material;
ineffectiveness of primary filling;
incorrectly restored crown;
re-infection of the root tip;
mechanical damage or injury.

Unsealing will also be required if a secondary infection of the apex has occurred, the filling has lost its tightness, or a complex anatomical arrangement of the canals is noted.

How long does root canal treatment take?

The duration of tooth canal treatment depends on the complexity and characteristics of the clinical case, as well as the number of canals that the specialist will have to treat. On average, the duration of the procedure can range from 20 minutes to 1.5 hours.

It is also worth considering that for high-quality root canal treatment, you will have to visit the dentist’s office several times.

Is it painful to treat root canals?

Thanks to the use of modern anesthetics, root canal treatment has become a painless procedure. The patient may feel mild discomfort only during the injection of the anesthetic.

Therefore, there is no need to be afraid of root canal treatment; moreover, you must remember that you should never postpone the procedure due to fear of the dentist! Inflammation in a tooth that has progressed to a certain stage of development cannot be cured, which means that the diseased tooth will have to be removed and a prosthesis put in its place. In addition, more serious complications may occur.

Tooth extraction using remote control is a quick, but not the best solution to the problem

Until now, especially among patients in the older age group, there is an opinion that the easiest way is to quickly and inexpensively remove a problematic tooth , thus getting rid of acute toothache. At first glance, it seems that you can really save your own time and money. But after removal, the lost tooth will have to be replaced with an artificial analogue, resorting to implantation or dental prosthetics.

These procedures are quite expensive and will require multiple visits to the clinic. And by refusing them, the patient risks encountering a whole series of new problems caused by malocclusion. The teeth adjacent to the removed ones will shift to the vacant space, the bone will begin to dissolve, the tone of the facial muscles will decrease, and the face will begin to age much faster. That's why dentists recommend endodontic treatment.

Modern method of treating tooth canals: treatment of the canal cavity under a microscope

The quality of dental canal treatment depends on the correctness and accuracy of cleaning and processing of their internal space. This is a very painstaking work, since the channels themselves are quite narrow (no more than one millimeter), and in addition, they can have bends and turns. If a specialist makes a mistake when treating the canals and does not remove particles of the affected dentin, a relapse of the inflammatory process is guaranteed. The use of a special tool in treatment - a dental microscope - will help eliminate possible errors and inaccuracies in the treatment of dental canals.

Using a microscope, the dentist will perform a high-quality removal of all infected tissues, while preventing injury to healthy tooth tissues. The use of the device simplifies the process of cleaning and processing channels with significant lengths, anomalous structure,

with curvatures and branches. In addition, the use of a dental microscope during the treatment of tooth canals improves the quality of tooth restoration as a whole, and also contributes to the timely detection of hidden caries.

At our dental clinic “Uni Dent” in St. Petersburg, you can receive services for dental canal treatment under a microscope. The procedure is carried out by highly qualified doctors using modern instruments and materials, and therefore when you contact us, you can rest assured that the treatment result will be of high quality! Dentistry "Uni Dent" - come to us for a beautiful smile and painless dental treatment!

Diagnostics

Treatment of impassable root canals begins with determining their length and anatomical features. The most informative diagnostic method is radiography. To obtain accurate data on the condition of the tissues, a photograph of the tooth root is taken with the instrument inserted into it. This allows you to see: