Endodontic Retreatment
Harrisonburg and Woodstock

With the appropriate care, your teeth that have had endodontic treatment will last as long as other natural teeth. Yet, a tooth that has received treatment may fail to heal or continue to cause pain. Sometimes, the pain may occur months or years after treatment. If so, Endodontic Retreatment may be needed.

Improper healing may be caused by:

• Curved or narrow canals not treated during the initial treatment.
• Complicated canals prohibiting ideal therapy during the initial treatment.
• The crown or restoration was not placed within the appropriate amount of time following the procedure allowing for contamination of the newly placed root canal filling.
• The crown or restoration did not prevent saliva from contaminating the inside of the tooth.
• Undetected cracks or fractures at the time of initial therapy that causes continued symptoms.

In some cases, new problems can influence a tooth that was successfully treated:

• New decay can expose a root canal filling material, causing re-contamination and infection.
• A cracked or loose filling or crown can expose the tooth to new infection.

Once retreatment has been selected as a solution to your problem, the doctors will reopen your tooth to gain access to the root canal filling material. This restorative material will be removed to enable access to the root canal. The doctors will now reclean your canals and carefully examine the inside of the problematic tooth. Once cleaned and further disinfected, the doctors will fill and seal the canals and place a temporary filling in the tooth.

At this point, you will need to return to your dentist as soon as possible in order to have a new crown or restoration placed on the tooth to restore full functionality (preferably within the month).