Retreatment

With proper care, you’ll keep teeth that have had root canal treatment for a lifetime but it’s possible for those teeth to heal improperly, becoming painful or diseased months or even years after treatment. If this happens to your treated teeth you have a second chance to save the tooth with retreatment.

Some possible reasons for retreatment include: complicated canal anatomy that went undetected, untreated canals, delay in placement of the final restoration, a cavity reaching the root canal filling material (causing bacterial recontamination), and cracks/fractures allowing microleakage back into the root canal filling material.

Retreatment involves removing the previously placed materials of the initial root canal and re-cleaning the canals of the tooth. The root canals are then re-sealed and a temporary or permanent filling is placed.