Many people at one time in their life will end up having a root canal done on one or more of their teeth. This root canal treatment is either done by a general dentist or a dental specialist known as an endodontist. Dental Specialties Blog about Endodontics and Endodontists in this Endodontist Blog.

We get asked many dentist questions online - Common Dental Questions Online we get asked on Dentalchat are - What is an Endodontist?  Another common dental question we get asked is - Why do I need a Root Canal?  We will be discussing root canals, endodontics, and endodontists in this dental blog.

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Health care has become and is becoming more specialized in many countries throughout the world.  Certain tasks such as heart surgery or doing various health care procedures are best handled by doctors with a specialized focus in that realm.  Now, like most health care - dentistry is becoming more specialized. There are many dental specialties or dentist specialists, that specialize in mostly one aspect of dentistry.  One US-recognized dental specialty is endodontists.

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Endodontics is a dental specialty that studies the dental pulp, root canal, or inside of the tooth. An Endodontist is a dentistry specialist that can provide root canal therapy & treatment of the tooth root including apicoectomy. Endodontists are specialized dentists that perform endodontic therapy in the tooth or teeth.  That is, they focus on the Pulp and pulp canal and the possible infection of that region in the mouth. After becoming a general dentist, endodontist continue their post-graduate education for generally a couple of years more - to become an endodontist.  A general dentist can also treat the ailments of the root canal, but at times with complications in the root canal/root pulp - an endodontist is called upon to perform the procedure.  Endodontists are usually referred the more complicated root canals.  Root Canal Treatment (RCT) is generally referred to in the dental community as RCT.  Root Canal therapy or treatment can vary from tooth to tooth, with generally larger molars taking more time to complete than the single-rooted and single-crown front teeth. 

Becoming an Endodontist - how does one become an endodontist?  To become an Endodontist, a general dentist after finishing dental school, usually goes another 2 years or 3 years more to a dental school or a dental specialty program to become an endodontist.

Many patients are referred to an Endodontist by a general dentist to perform a root canal or an apicoectomy. An apicoectomy is the removal of the tip of the root which is done by making an incision into your gum area.  It is generally done after a root canal - when the infection persists around the root of the tooth.  

Patients who have suffered from issues related to root canals - are very well aware of the severity of pain that may arise from an abscessed tooth. The reason is that the root canal is a very sensitive part of the tooth. Teeth roots have pointed edges. In case of an injury occurring to the tooth nerve or root canal, or a cavity is formed in the root canal area - the victim may suffer from severe pain. In many cases, the person is not able to speak or eat properly.  

An option is to extract a tooth or to save it by doing a root canal.  Endodontists are a great resource to help save a tooth or teeth.

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After having a root canal done, the patient needs to get a permanent tooth restoration. This will be either a dental crown or another form of dental restoration to fill the tooth - to protect the tooth from fracture or breaking.  The tooth is hallowed out and only the root canal portion inside of the root(s) is filled - the rest of the tooth is generally just filled with some sort of temporary filling. After getting a root canal, the dental crown is placed on teeth that have structural damage, as to reduce tooth fracture or tooth breakage.  They generally need to go back to their general dentist or a prosthodontist, to have the tooth filled/restored. 

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• Common Root Canal Question of Why some teeth cost more than others when getting root canal treatment?
• After a Root Canal, what should I do?

Each tooth is different in the mouth.  Generally, front teeth have one root and usually one or 2 canals.  The back molars, on the other hand, can have 2 roots or 3 roots - and many canals in each tooth root. Hence, back molars usually cost more to do a root canal than say front teeth.   It is very important once the root canal therapy or treatment is complete, to get the permanent filling and/or crown on the tooth.  Endodontics Chatting Online, Local Endodontist Chat Online, Root Canal Question and Tooth Pain Blogging online at DentalChat. We welcome your dental questions & dental feedback.

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Most teeth that have a root canal done, have a high success rate.  Sometimes, the failure of a root canal can happen.  That is, occasionally the root canal treatment may need to be redone. Also,  around the root tip area under the gums, the abscess may not go away with root canal treatment and antibiotics.  In this case, a further treatment endodontist may need to perform is an Apicoectomy - a retrograde root canal filling done by making an incision usually in the gum area by the root tip.  an apicoectomy is sometimes called a root-end resection. We will discuss this further in future articles.  Most teeth that do have root canal treatment - usually do not need apicoectomy treatment.  

We did discuss endodontics and root canal treatment in this dental article.  Either a dentist or a Specialized dentist such as an endodontist - can provide patients with root canal therapy. Many times, teeth with severe abscesses or teeth that have multiple roots in the back of the mouth - have root canal treatment done by endodontists.  Dental Specialties Blogging online - We discuss all dental specialties in dentistry on Dental Chat - we appreciate our reader's feedback and hope our dental blogs are useful and informative.  Online Dental Question Blog, Ask Dental Crown Questions, or share with us Your Dental Story.  We want our dental chat platform to help people. Can ask various dental questions on various dental topics on DentalChat -  we are looking to help people to have more dental information on various dental topics.