At Cascadia Dental Specialists, our doctors make sure you’re comfortable and informed throughout endodontics procedures, including root canal treatment.
Root Canals
Root canal treatment, an endodontic treatment, involves two main steps:
- Removing infected and inflamed nerve tissue around a tooth
- Eliminating bacteria and infection around the root canal to save your natural tooth and prevent reinfection
Root canal procedures are common. They definitively relieve pain and save your natural teeth. We perform root canal procedures (aka endodontic therapy) to fix multiple issues:
- Cracked teeth
- Deep cavities
- Problems from previous fillings or dental work
During root canal treatment, we first give you anesthesia (sedation). Your endodontic specialist removes infected pulp, disinfects the inner chamber and reshapes the tooth canal. They then fill the canal with an elastic, medicated material to prevent infection until you receive a crown for sealing.
Both endodontic and periodontic specialists treat you at Cascadia Dental, so we can perform all your endodontic treatment steps in-house.
Learn more about how much a root canal may cost and the insurance providers we work with.
Book an appointment for root canal treatment today. Contact us for more information about your procedure and our expert root canal treatment specialist (RCT specialist).
Root Amputations
We perform a root amputation, aka a root resection, to remove roots from a multirooted tooth. It’s an endodontic treatment, meaning it involves the soft tissues (pulp) inside your tooth.
Our specialists remove the infected root while preserving the healthy roots around it. As a result, we don’t need to extract part or all of your tooth.
We generally perform a root amputation after you undergo standard root canal treatment. Root amputation prevents a broken or injured tooth from decaying, becoming infected and affecting the healthy teeth around it.
Contact us for more information about root amputation, or schedule an appointment.
Apicoectomy
An apicoectomy procedure, aka a root-end resection, is necessary when infection or inflammation appears after you have root canal treatment. It’s one of several specialized endodontics procedures.
First, we apply an anesthetic (sedation). Your endodontist opens the gum tissue to examine the underlying bone. Then, they remove any infected tissue and the end of the root.
Finally, they place a small filling to seal your root canal and help the tissue heal. The bone heals around the root over time.
Book an appointment for an apicoectomy/root-end resection, or contact us to learn more.
Note. An apicoectomy/root-end resection differs from a root amputation/root resection, although they’re both surgical endodontics procedures. An apicoectomy involves treating the root’s tip, while a root amputation involves treating an entire root. We delve into more differences here.
Endodontic Retreatment
Endodontic retreatment gives your tooth another chance if a root canal-treated tooth heals improperly. This procedure encourages better healing and removes infection, helping save your natural teeth.
During endodontic retreatment, your endodontist administers anesthesia and removes your current root canal’s filling materials. They then carefully examine and clean the tooth. Finally, they remove any infection, reshape the canal, replace it with new filling materials and seal it.
After you heal, we place a new crown on your tooth for protection. Endodontic retreatment pain is minimal. Our endodontic specialist and periodontic specialists can both perform retreatment and place your crown at our Bellevue clinic.
We’re also ready to help with dental emergencies, including emergency root canal treatment.
Contact us for information about our endodontic retreatment procedure, or schedule an appointment today.
Endodontic Surgery: Postoperative Care
We try to retain your permanent, natural teeth with endodontic surgery procedures like those above.
Although endodontic surgery has a high success rate, we still may need to extract a tooth. This depends on how your body responds to the postsurgical healing process. We monitor you closely to check your postoperative healing progress.
Postoperative Care for Endodontic Surgery
Follow these instructions to heal best after endodontic surgery:
- Starting the next day, brush the rest of your teeth while staying away from the surgical site.
- Use a warm saltwater rinse of 1 teaspoon of salt to 8 ounces of warm water after every meal. Don’t rinse too vigorously for the first few days after surgery. Continue this routine until we remove your sutures in one week. Keeping the surgical site clean is key to good healing.
- Keep your tongue and fingers away from the surgical site.
- Don’t pull on the cheek or tissue around the surgical site. The tissue is regenerating, so leave it alone for ideal healing.
- Don’t consume hot, spicy or acidic foods and drinks for the first couple days after treatment.
- Don’t eat foods with nuts, seeds and berries because they may get stuck in your sutures and tissue.
- Eat cooler foods for the first two days after endodontic surgery to reduce inflammation and bruising.
- Remember that bruising or swelling may occur. You’re most likely to see inflammation at 36 hours after surgery, which causes most of your discomfort.
- Take 600 milligrams of ibuprofen every six hours for the next three days. Don’t take more than 2,400 milligrams in 24 hours. Ibuprofen helps control inflammation and the discomfort it causes.
- Intermittently place a cold compress on your face over the surgical site for the next 48 hours to minimize inflammation. Apply the compress 10 minutes on and 10 minutes off.
- Starting on day three, periodically place a warm compress on your face over the surgical site to help blood circulate and minimize bruising.
Further Endodontic Surgery Guidelines
We may use dissolvable sutures during endodontic surgery.
If a dissolvable suture comes out or becomes loose, don’t be alarmed. We’ll look at your healing progress during your one-week post-op visit and remove remaining sutures.
We may prescribe you an antibiotic after surgical endodontics procedures. Please start taking your antibiotic as directed ASAP until you’ve finished the entire course. Don’t stop taking your antibiotics when you feel better — this leads to antibiotic resistance.
We recommend eating before taking antibiotics because they may irritate your stomach.
Do you have questions about endodontic surgery? Contact us for answers, or schedule an appointment now.
Endodontics Procedures FAQ
Endodontics procedures are dental health treatments that involve the inside of your tooth — the pulp, surrounding tissue and nerves. “Endo” means “inside,” while “odont” (or “dontic”) means “tooth” in Greek. An example of endodontic treatment is a root canal.
Endodontics procedures aren’t limited to root canal treatment. They include apicoectomies, root amputations and more.
You need endodontic treatment when your tooth pulp has grown infected, inflamed or otherwise damaged. Your primary care dentist may determine this, then refer you to an endodontist. Alternatively, your primary dentist may be an endodontist.
Endodontists treat the sensitive, complex area inside your tooth. They focus on preserving your teeth and eliminating pain as soon as possible.
They’ve undergone rigorous education and training to diagnose and treat endodontic problems. An endodontist has keen problem-solving skills that help them identify which procedure you need, why and how quickly.
An endodontics diagnosis means your dental health provider has thoroughly examined your tooth and determined the pulp is damaged. This often indicates endodontic diagnoses, including pulpitis (pulp inflammation), necrosis, abscess and cyst.
Whatever the cause, you likely have severe tooth pain, as well as swelling and sensitivity. Endodontics procedures relieve your pain and usually save your natural tooth.
These are the general steps your endodontist takes when performing endodontic treatment. Please note these steps may differ among endodontics procedures and surgeries:
- Anesthetizes the area around your tooth
- Accesses your tooth canal with a drill (you don’t feel it)
- Removes infected and damaged pulp from the canal
- Cleans and shapes the canal
- Fills the canal with a special dental material
- Fits a temporary crown over the tooth (later, a permanent crown)
Your endodontist also speaks to you about your personal stages of endodontic treatment and healing. Cascadia Dental has two periodontists and an endodontist on staff who perform all steps at one Bellevue location.
An endodontic crown (or “endocrown”) specifically fits a tooth that’s undergone endodontic treatment. An endodontic crown can handle more dental stress and pressure than a traditional crown.
This crown type is particularly beneficial when your endodontic treatment has resulted in significant loss of tooth structure. The single crown covers the tooth mass lost during your procedure.
The most common endodontic treatment, a root canal/endodontic therapy, costs around $1,000 to $1,300. This number varies according to the tooth’s placement (front, premolar, molar). However, those are general averages for root canal treatment.
The cost of treatment also depends on your insurance coverage, your exact endodontic procedure and your provider. It’s difficult to give a hard-and-fast estimate because your circumstances are unique — even your location plays a role. Contact us to ask about affordable Bellevue-based payment plans and insurance.
Endodontics procedures last around 60 minutes on average, although this time is variable. A standard root canal treatment may take only 30 minutes. More involved endodontics procedures, like endodontic surgery, may take 1 hour or longer.
How long your procedure takes comes down to several factors:
- Your tooth’s location (molar, premolar, front)
- Your condition’s severity
- Your endodontist’s techniques
- Your clinic’s dental technology
Treatment tends to be quicker when your endodontist is experienced and uses advanced dental care tools.