What is Endodontic Surgery?
Occasionally, a nonsurgical root canal procedure alone cannot save your tooth and surgery will be recommended. Endodontic surgery can be used to locate small fractures or hidden canals that weren’t detected on dental images or during previous treatment. Surgery may also be needed to remove calcification in root canals, or to treat damaged root surfaces or the surrounding bone of the tooth.
There are many surgical procedures that can be performed to save a tooth. The most common is called an apicoectomy, or root-end resection, which is occasionally needed when inflammation or infection persists in the bony area around the end of your tooth after a root canal procedure. In this microsurgical procedure, our doctor opens the gum tissue near the tooth to see the underlying bone and to remove any inflamed or infected tissue. The very end of the root is also removed. A small filling may be placed to seal the end of the root canal and a few stitches or sutures are placed to help the tissue heal. Over a period of months, the bone heals around the end of the root.