ENDODONTIC ACCIDENTS

ENDODONTIC ACCIDENTS

An endodontic treatment can be complicated due to a variety of reasons. The most common are the lack of theoretical knowledge, professional skills and experience, low quality instruments or materials, variable anatomical factors.

The accidents provoked by these factors fall into several categories:

• accidents caused by access to the tooth undergoing an endodontic treatment;

• instrumentation related accidents;

• obturation related accidents

The first category of endodontic accidents involves different cases. One of them is when a wrong tooth is treated. Sometimes some additional canals or those not easily reachable are left without treatment. Also a damage to a previously placed crown can occur or a perforation that causes communication between a pulp cavity and the external tooth surface is created and furthermore, the tooth can fracture while an endodontic procedure.

The second category of endodontic accidents includes the situations when the size of an endodontic instrument does not fit the size of a root canal and as a result different parts of the tooth can become perforated (e.g. inappropriate use of Gates-Glidden burs) the root canal can be obstructed (dental instruments separate or break). the root canal file can't reach the apical terminus (unique anatomical structure of a root canal),etc.

The third category of endodontic accidents encompasses the situations when over- or underextended root canal fillings are made, nerve paresthesia occurs or vertical root fracture is caused.

To conclude, a successful endodontic treatment requires a set of issues met. Among them is an excellent educational background, first class professional training and a high quality of instruments and materials used while a procedure.