Otherwise known as root canal therapy, the aim of endodontic treatment is to remove the pulp (which is the soft tissue inside the tooth which contains the tooth’s nerve and blood supply) of a tooth, disinfection of the root canal system, and then filling or obliteration of the cleansed canals.
As the pulp tissue contains nerve fibres it is the most sensitive part of a tooth, and because it contains blood vessels it can become infected with bacteria from the mouth or from carious lesions. As the pulp is encased within the hard dentine any inflammation of the pulp results in an increase in pressure within this very small enclosed space, which further increases the pain.
Endodontic treatment is indicated when there are clinical indications of irreversible pulpitis. As caries is a bacterial disease, these bacteria and their toxic byproducts start to irritate the pulp, cause inflammation and infections, and too often necrosis or death of the pulp results, which is then seen and experienced as a very painful abscess. Due to the dentine layer which encases the pulp containing approximately 55,000 microscopic tubules per square millimetre, any carious lesion which has penetrated through to the dentine layer is in direct contact with the pulp via these millions of porous tubules.
Endodontic therapy is unfortunately a time consuming and meticulous procedure, as the canal system of each tooth can be highly individual, and is there is an infinite array of different possibilities of the number of canals, and their shapes, sizes and configurations. Proper and decent endodontic therapy cannot be rushed if a successful long-term prognosis is to be sought. Most of our endodontic treatments are completed over two sessions to ensure the best possible outcome.
We use the latest rotary instruments, titanium ProTaper Universal and ProTaper Next series, with a XSmart rotary endo motor.