Faculty Bibliography

A complication of endodontic treatment is over-preparation of the tooth structure in an attempt to access calcified pulp chambers and root canals. This could result in thin root walls that might compromise the long-term prognosis of the tooth. There are various treatment options when such a complication occurs, among them, extraction of the compromised tooth and its replacement with a dental implant. This clinical report describes a nonsurgical, multidisciplinary treatment alternative where a maxillary anterior tooth with a thinned root wall was successfully saved by repairing the damaged root to its original thickness using a composite resin material and subsequently restoring with a cast post and core and a crown.

BACKGROUND: The authors undertook a study involving members of a dental practice-based research network to determine the outcome and factors associated with success and failure of endodontic therapy. METHODS: Members in participating practices (practitioner-investigators [P-Is]) invited the enrollment of all patients seeking treatment in the practice who had undergone primary endodontic therapy and restoration in a permanent tooth three to five years previously. If a patient had more than one tooth so treated, the P-I selected as the index tooth the tooth treated earliest during the three- to five-year period. The authors excluded from the study any teeth that served as abutments for removable partial dentures or overdentures, third molars and teeth undergoing active orthodontic endodontic therapy. The primary outcome was retention of the index tooth. Secondary outcomes, in addition to extraction, that defined failure included clinical or radiographic evidence (or both) of periapical pathosis, endodontic retreatment or pain on percussion. RESULTS: P-Is in 64 network practices enrolled 1,312 patients with a mean (standard deviation) time to follow-up of 3.9 (0.6) years. During that period, 3.3 percent of the index teeth were extracted, 2.2 percent underwent retreatment, 3.6 percent had pain on percussion and 10.6 percent had periapical radiolucencies for a combined failure rate of 19.1 percent. The presence of preoperative periapical radiolucency with a diagnosis of either irreversible pulpitis or necrotic pulp was associated with failure after multivariate analysis, as were multiple canals, male sex and Hispanic/Latino ethnicity. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that failure rates for endodontic therapy are higher than previously reported in general practices, according to results of studies based on dental insurance claims data. CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS: The results of this study can help guide the practitioner in deciding the most appropriate course of therapy for teeth with irreversible pulpitis, necrotic pulp or periapical periodontitis.

Concrescence is a rare developmental anomaly with an overall incidence of 0.8% in the permanent dentition. While many case reports describe the treatment of concrescence with extraction, there are few reports of non-surgical root canal treatment (NSRCT), due to the atypical root form, canal morphology, and technical difficulties involved in concrescence. This unique case report describes a technical modification of NSRCT that can retain joined posterior maxillary teeth to maintain natural posterior occlusion without surgical intervention or dental implants, thereby avoiding the risk of damage to a large portion of the alveolar bone near the maxillary sinus. (J Oral Sci 54, 133-136, 2012).