Root canal treatment is a delicate and meticulous procedure, and it's best to have an experienced endodontist, since they have specialized knowledge and have completed an additional 2 to 3 years of training. It is essential to remove as little tooth structure as possible to guarantee maximum strength during the endodontic process. If endodontics has failed for any reason, is it worth the time, effort, cost, and slightly reduced prognosis of trying again? Well, it depends. A high percentage of reimplanted teeth will be successful the second time around, so if you can afford it, I would certainly recommend it.
With proper care, you'll preserve teeth that have undergone endodontic treatment for a lifetime, but those teeth may heal inadequately and become painful or sick months or even years after treatment. If this happens to the treated teeth, you have a second chance to save the tooth with a new treatment. An additional procedure can reduce dental pain or discomfort and promote healing. If you suspect that a tooth that had a previous endodontic treatment requires new treatment, see your dentist or endodontist for evaluation. Root canal treatment is painless and can save a tooth that would otherwise have to be completely removed. It is not uncommon to overlook a canal while performing endodontic treatment, especially on molars, where the formula “one root and one canal” is usually nullified by the fact that the number of canals is greater than the number of roots.
Endodontics may have failed if symptoms recur, and this can occur many years after treatment has been completed. Dental implants, another alternative, have been shown to be effective; however, they often require more treatment time at a higher cost. Similarly, a new root treatment can be done in this way; it's just a slightly more difficult procedure. Root canal treatment is necessary when dental x-rays show that the pulp has been damaged by a bacterial infection. The quality of the root canal filling was the most important factor in the success of endodontic treatment in a study of 1001 endodontically treated teeth. The objective of endodontic treatment is to thoroughly debride and clean the root canal system from any infected pulp tissue, so that the space of the canal can be shaped and prepared to be filled with an inert material, thus avoiding or minimizing any possibility of reinfection. The process for re-performing endodontic treatment is almost exactly the same; the only difference is that the initial stage consists of trying to remove the entire guttapercha from each of the canals instead of the nerve.
If a post has been placed in the tooth to support the crown, this makes re-performing root canal treatment considerably more difficult and sometimes impossible. Root canal therapy has been demonstrated to last longer than the alternative solution of removing an unhealthy tooth and replacing it with a bridge. If a post is going to be placed in the tooth, due to the difficulty of removing it, if there were any issues, it would be wise to place it back in the root. Despite the high success rate of endodontic treatment, failures occur in a large number of cases and can most of the time be attributed to causes such as inadequate cleaning or filling of canals or inadequate sealing of access cavities. After receiving endodontic treatment, it's essential to restore the tooth with a crown or permanent filling as soon as possible.
