The patient came to our practice complaining of abscess on and off around one of her back teeth. She had root canal treatment and crown done two years ago. On the x-ray, we can see a defective root canal treatment with underfilled root filling and periapical infection. The tooth was also loose after the bridge was cut off because of bone loss caused by persist infection.
After discussing the options with the patient, we decided to re-do the root canal treatment, which involved removing the old root filling, cleaning the whole root canal system and filling the root canal adequately and firmly.
On the examination two months later, the tooth became solid again and the x-ray showed infection was gone and new bone formed.
When root canal treatment fails, normally re-treatment and extraction will be the only two options. Even though re-treatment is a more difficult procedure, it's still a good option to keep your own teeth.