Endodontic (Root Canal) Surgery

In order to fully understand why you may need an apicoectomy or root end surgery it is helpful to understand why you needed the root canal to begin with.  The dental pulp which resides within the root canal space may become damaged.  This can be the result of a history of deep decay,  repeated dental procedures on your tooth or a traumatic blow to the tooth.  Your only options when your tooth gets to this point is to try to save it with root canal therapy or extract your tooth.  With nonsurgical endodontic therapy the pulp is removed and the root canal space is disinfected.

There are situations where endodontic therapy and even retreatment of the root canal may need an endodontic surgery.  Some examples are if calcium deposits have made the root canals difficult to clean out.  Another reason may be that an endodontic instrument has dislodged during a previous root canal treatment and your endodontist may not have the ability to get past it.  An root end surgery could eliminate this issue.