{"id":1236,"date":"2020-09-30T23:52:03","date_gmt":"2020-10-01T03:52:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.drszarek.com\/blog\/?p=1236"},"modified":"2020-09-30T23:57:31","modified_gmt":"2020-10-01T03:57:31","slug":"root-canal-treatment-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.drszarek.com\/blog\/root-canal-treatment-again\/","title":{"rendered":"Root canal treatment again?"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 2014, my dentist did a root canal on an upper right molar. Two months ago, the tooth started hurting, and it’s getting worse. Will I need an extraction and dental implant, or if I see a specialist, can they try a root canal treatment again and prevent an extraction? \u2013 Thanks. Noble R. from CT<\/p>\n

Noble,<\/p>\n

Root canal treatment is one of the least predictable treatments in dentistry. Even if a dentist performs the procedure correctly, it has a 5-15% failure rate.<\/p>\n

Can Root Canal Treatment Be Repeated?<\/h2>\n

Root canal treatment can be repeated multiple times. But it doesn’t always make sense to do it. Still, there is an option before extracting a tooth and replacing it with a dental implant.<\/p>\n

Why Causes Root Canal Failure?<\/h2>\n

Sometimes root canal treatment fails because the dentist could not completely remove the infection from a tooth. Canals in a tooth can twist and turn and make it difficult or impossible for a dentist to clean out the infection and seal out bacteria fully.<\/p>\n

The pulp in your tooth contains living tissue, nerves, and blood vessels. A pulp chamber is in the crown of a tooth, and a pulp canal conducts blood supply and nerve in the chamber. If tooth pulp is infected, a dentist will clean out the chamber and canal and seal them to prevent bacteria from entering the tooth.<\/p>\n

Molar teeth usually have three canals for each tooth root. But sometimes a tooth has a fourth canal that\u2019s difficult to find and clean. Some canals have branches at right angles. A dentist has tiny, highly flexible files to insert in the tooth and remove the infected tissue, but the files cannot enter a side branch with a right angle. Although a minority of teeth have fourth canals and challenging angles, sometimes fourth canals exist and retreatment is needed. Retreatment has a 50 to 75% success rate. But if retreatment is completed by a dentist who is skilled in root canal treatment and it fails, a third treatment is likely to fail.<\/p>\n

Root Canal Surgery<\/h2>\n

Root canal surgery is a procedure that enters the tooth through the root instead of the crown. A root canal specialist, or endodontist, performs root canal surgery, or an apicoectomy. The treatment is 50 to 75% successful. The specialist will take the following steps:<\/p>\n