Different approaches to nonsurgical root canal retreatment

When patients don’t respond to primary endodontic procedures, nonsurgical root canal retreatment may become necessary.

In a retrospective study published in the Journal of Endodontics, the investigators examined the efficacy of nonsurgical root canal retreatment with foraminal enlargement and 2% chlorhexidine gel compared with standard nonsurgical root canal retreatment strategies in 80 patients who had 120 teeth with persistent apical periodontitis. The patients underwent the procedures between January 2014 and December 2018.

The investigators used digital periapical radiographs to analyze periapical healing as well as descriptive statistics and bivariate analyses to examine treatment outcomes.

After an average follow-up of 30 months, 92.5% of the teeth achieved treatment success, defined by complete or incomplete repair, while 7.5% of the teeth were unsuccessfully treated. The investigators found that nonsurgical root canal retreatment with foraminal enlargement and 2% chlorhexidine gel led to a high success rate.

The findings indicated that treatment using foraminal enlargement and 2% chlorhexidine gel may be an effective alternative to tooth extraction. Further studies are needed to validate the results of the study.

Read more: Journal of Endodontics

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