When root canal treatment or endodontic treatment is necessary your dentist should inform you about the procedure. You will be informed about the entire protocol and the duration and number of visits expected until therapy is completed.
There are many reasons for root canal treatment. In most cases, the main reason is pulp or periradicular tissue infection, but sometimes, due to prosthodontic rehabilitation, some teeth need to be edodontically treated. Whatever the cause is, the essence of the procedure is pretty much the same. The main idea is to remove the pulp tissue and the infection from the pulp chamber and root canal system, which is followed by obliteration of this empty space with adequate filling materials. Since endodontic dental procedures weren't always the treatment of a first choice for a toothache the alternative option was usually tooth extraction. With the development of new materials, instrument and devices the survival rate of endodontically treated teeth have significantly raised in the last 20 years.
Endodontic files and reamers are surgical instruments used by dentists when performing root canal treatment. These tools are used to clean and shape the root canal, with the concept being to perform complete chemomechanical debridement of the root canal to the length of the apical foramen. Preparing the canal in this way facilitates the chemical disinfection to a satisfactory length but also provides a shape conducive to obturation (filling of the canal).
Diagnostic procedures didn't change much except in the area of radiographic diagnostic and with the introduction of CBCT technology in everyday dental practice. This kind of radiographs allows the dentist to explore the suspect tooth and the surrounding tissues much more precisely. The presence of the periradicular lesion can be seen in all three dimensions so as the presence of missed or accessory canals. In many cases, this diagnostic method helped mainly in failed endodontic treatment and their successful retreatment.
One of the most important steps in endodontic procedures is mechanical cleaning and irrigation of the root canal system. The main goal is to mechanically clean the debris from the canal walls and to wash it out of the canals. For mechanical cleaning different types of files can be used, rotary or hand files, made out of stainless steel or Nickel-Titanium. Intensive development of endodontic starts in the mid of 18th century, with intensive progress through the 19th century. During this period dentists and scientists from all over the world explored different opportunities for saving the inflamed tooth by preserving the pulp tissue or removing it from the tooth in order the save the one. First, the stainless-steel hand files were used for removing the pulp and debris from the canal system. Several techniques were introduced by well-known doctor Schilder: crown-down, step-back and balance-forced technique. These techniques are still learned in dental schools around the Globe, as fundamentals of endodontics, and many dentists still use only these techniques with great success.
There are many classifications of endodontic files like Exploring files, Extirpating files, Enlarging files (for cleaning and shaping), Filling files, Niti Rotary Files, Root Canal Files, Veterinary Dental Files, etc.