Endodontics
Preserving teeth for a lifetime is not always straightforward – especially when they are inflamed. However, in most cases, your natural teeth are superior to even the best artificial replacements. A root canal treatment can achieve this with a high degree of success. On this page, we aim to explain the most important aspects of root canal treatment to you.
Our Root Canal Specialists
DR. MARCO
GEORGI, M.Sc.
DR. HENNING
BAHNEMANN, M.Sc.
CHRISTOF
RIFFEL, M.Sc
Dr. Georgi, Dr. Bahnemann, and Mr. Riffel are our specialists in endodontics.
As a specialist in microscopic endodontics, revision treatment, and microsurgery, Dr. Georgi is a sought-after lecturer at many continuing education institutes. For more than 10 years, he has also taught internationally and holds the scientific directorship for endodontic continuing education at the Hessian State Medical Association. He is the founding president of the Association of German Certified Endodontists (VDZE)
Dr. Bahnemann is also an experienced specialist in endodontics and microscopic dentistry. He is also an expert in dental hypnosis. Dr. Bahnemann is Vice President of the VDZE and serves as a speaker in the field of endodontics.
Christof Riffel specializes in pediatric endodontics, traumatology, and dental hypnosis. He is a long-standing active member of the Association of German Certified Endodontists (VDZE).
Why Does My Tooth Become Diseased?
In most cases, a tooth becomes diseased due to caries bacteria, but accidents, dental, or orthodontic treatments can also be the cause. Inflammation or infection inside the tooth is the result of such stimuli.
Inside a tooth, a canal system branches out, containing living tissue (pulp) with nerves and blood vessels. Unfortunately, the defensive capacity of this tissue is very limited, so the body sometimes cannot adequately ward off the stimuli and heal the disease.
Previously, there was no saving such teeth. Since a tooth’s canal system is often very delicate and has many curvatures, there was no treatment option, and the tooth had to be extracted. Today, things are completely different…
WHY A ROOT CANAL TREATMENT?
If your dentist recommends treatment with an endodontist, there is a suspicion or certainty that something is wrong with the inside of a tooth.
Treating special cases requires specialized training and extensive experience in this field – as well as particular technology to visualize and treat the hair-fine canals inside the tooth.
In the past, teeth with diseased roots were often extracted. Today, advanced technologies and medical developments make it possible to save teeth that were once thought almost lost.
The success rate is reassuringly high: most teeth can be preserved with a well-founded endodontic treatment and a good prognosis!
What Can the Dentist Do to Preserve My Tooth?
To preserve an inflamed or non-vital tooth, its root must be treated. The bacteria in the tooth must be removed, and the tooth must be sealed so effectively that no new germs can enter.
Since the tooth’s root system, similar to a tree, has many small ramifications (some only a few hundredths of a millimeter in size!), these can only be made visible under a microscope. This technique, along with appropriately flexible and micro-fine instruments, allows for optimal preparation to remove bacteria and diseased tissue – and thus a greater treatment success.
In preparation for filling the root canal system, the root canals are prepared with highly elastic micro-files. For filling the canal system, gutta-percha, a material related to natural rubber, is heated and introduced into the now optimally prepared system in combination with an adhesive cement.
Only if the root system is thoroughly cleaned of bacteria can the infection be eliminated and the bone heal again!
What is the Likelihood of Preserving My Tooth?
Naturally, it depends on individual circumstances, such as the stage of inflammation and oral hygiene. However, the anatomy of the tooth and potentially additional factors, such as loss of the periodontium due to cyst formation, also play a significant role. Long-term studies in the USA and Scandinavia showed a success rate of over 80% for professional endodontic treatment using the methodology mentioned above.
What Does the Treatment Cost?
What Alternatives are there?
Common Misconceptions about Root Canal Treatments
Misconception: Root canal treatments are painful.
Truth: Root canal treatments do not cause pain; instead, they eliminate it.
Stories about painful root canal treatments have nothing to do with modern endodontics. Today’s anesthetics (pain-eliminating injectables) and targeted endodontic techniques make a root canal treatment no less comfortable than placing a filling.
Most patients visit their dentist or endodontist when they have persistent toothache. Such pain often originates from diseased pulp (nerve) tissue inside the tooth. During root canal treatment, the diseased tissue is removed, thereby eliminating the cause of the pain.
A survey showed that patients who had experienced a root canal treatment described it as “painless” six times more often than patients who had not yet received a root canal treatment.
Misconception: Root canal treatments cause diseases.
Truth: Root canal treatments are a safe and successful treatment.
In the past, a small group of medical professionals claimed that there was a connection between root-treated teeth and the occurrence of certain diseases. This opinion is based on the long-outdated study by Dr. Weston Price from the period of 1910–1930!
Many scientific studies published in this field for over 70 years show that there is no connection between root canal fillings and any type of disease. The most recent research on this topic clearly demonstrates that a properly root-treated tooth poses no health risk whatsoever.
Misconception: A good alternative to root canal treatment is tooth extraction.
Truth: Preserving your natural tooth is certainly the best choice.
Nothing can completely replace your natural tooth. Artificial teeth sometimes force you to change your eating habits. Preserving your own teeth means maintaining the joy of eating and its diverse pleasures. Root canal treatment is the most biocompatible way to treat the disease of the tissue inside your tooth (pulp).
Good root canal treatments have a very high success rate. Many teeth last a lifetime afterward. Replacing lost teeth with bridges, dentures, or implants usually requires more time and financial effort. Furthermore, treatment of adjacent teeth and surrounding tissues is often necessary.
Root Canal Treatment
Nothing is as beautiful and functional as your natural teeth. Modern endodontics makes it possible to permanently preserve even compromised teeth. This video demonstrates how a root canal treatment works.
A Cracked Tooth
When a tooth is cracked, it is important to prevent inflammation from forming underneath. Root canal treatment eliminates pain and prevents the problem from worsening.
The Operating Microscope: Precise Control of the Treatment Process
To safely treat the fine, branched canals, good visibility is not only helpful but absolutely essential in modern endodontology. With the naked eye, the fine entrances to the canals are often not visible. If one relies solely on tactile sensation, many canals and niches remain hidden. Tissue remnants and bacteria left there can lead to a recurrence of inflammation even years after treatment.
A Microscope is Essential
Only 39% of root canal treatments performed conventionally (without an operating microscope) in Germany are successful, and only 12% of treatments show results that meet the requirements of the ESE (European Society of Endodontology).
DIGITAL VOLUME TOMOGRAPHY (DVT)
With Digital Volume Tomography (DVT), a new era in diagnostics began in endodontology. The high-resolution 3D images, which depict the tooth in fine layers, are not only distortion- and superposition-free but also true to scale.
X‑rays are standard in every dental practice today and are relatively easy to produce. However, the diagnostic possibilities are sometimes insufficient, for example, due to distortions, superpositions, or ambiguities caused by exposure. In the worst case, this can lead to misinterpretations. Through DVT diagnostics, the endodontist is able to detect a variety of diseases of the teeth and surrounding structures such as bone or the maxillary sinus, which otherwise could only be visualized in part with complex alternative cross-sectional imaging procedures (e.g., computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging).
The significantly lower radiation exposure is another advantage of DVT technology compared to conventional CT.
DVT Scans Help, for Example, with…
- suspected inflammatory processes in the jawbone caused by tooth roots.
- when planning endodontic revisions.
- bei der Planung mikrochirurgischer Eingriffe an Zahnwurzeln in unmittelbarer Nachbarschaft zu Nerven.
- diagnosis after dental accidents (clarification of root and/or jaw fractures).
- internal and external root resorptions.
Our Mentor: Cliff Ruddle – Doyen of Endodontology
He could be described as our mentor: Cliff Ruddle has consistently inspired, supported, and encouraged us. As a student of the famous father of the “Schilder philosophy,” Herbert Schilder, he further developed his techniques and created innovative instruments for root canal treatment, especially increasingly finer and more effective ones. At his lectures and workshops, as well as in professional associations and other continuing education events, we repeatedly met and discovered our shared fascination for endodontology.
