Endodontic treatment

PULPITIS AND PERIODONTITIS

When destruction process reaches the dental pulp this causes its inflammation: pulpitis.

Non-treated pulpitis sometimes worsens and the infection can distribute further – microorganisms and their toxins reach the tooth surrounding tissue through the canals of the dental pulp. This is periodontitis. The inflammation process more often is localized around the apex of the tooth’s root. If the inflammation would go acutely of completely chronically, this depends much on the activity of microorganisms and the defensive capability of the body. It is possible that periodontitis develop only chronically with no complaints at all. In this case, it can only be found on a radiograph.

If the treatment starts when there is already periodontitis, prognosis for success is worse than if it had begun at the moment when infection was only inside the borders of the tooth (pulpitis). That is why, the sooner the treatment starts, the bigger are the chances for success and for saving the tooth.

When the tooth has pulpitis or periodontitis, endodontic treatment has to be undertaken. It includes anesthesia, making an access to the canals of the tooth, their total cleaning, hand and machine shaping and widening, irrigation with bactericide solutions, an finally – filling (obturating) of the canals with an inert material. What is needed to be done next is restoring (filling) the access cavity of the tooth with a composite material.

Treatment of pulpitis aims restoring of tooth’s structure, function and esthetics. It is estimated as a successful one if at the routine follow-up visits on the 6^th month and 2^nd year after treatment there are no complications seen on a small dental radiograph.

The second photo clearly shows how one small-looking caries that one can see on tooth’s surface, develops in depth quite aggressively and reaches the dental pulp causing pulpitis.