Endodontic Surgery

Endodontic surgery can help save your tooth in a variety of situations. The benefit of choosing endodontic surgery could be a healthy, functioning, natural tooth for the rest of your life.

Usually, a tooth that has undergone a root canal can last the rest of your life and never need further endodontic treatment. However, in a few cases, a tooth may not heal or become infected.

A tooth may become painful or diseased months or even years after successful treatment. If this is true for you, surgery may help save the tooth. Surgery may also be performed to treat damaged root surfaces or surrounding bone.

Apicoectomy (Root-End Resection)

Although many surgical procedures can be performed to save a tooth, the most common is called apicoectomy or root-end resection. When inflammation or infection persists in the bony area around the end of your tooth after a root canal procedure, our doctors may have to perform an apicoectomy.

In this procedure, the endodontist opens the gum tissue near the tooth to see the underlying bone and remove any inflamed or infected tissue. The very end of the root is also removed.

A small filling may be placed in the root to seal the end of the root canal, and a few stitches or sutures are placed in the gingiva to help the tissue heal properly. Over a period of months, the bone heals around the end of the root.