Endodontic Emergencies
Endodontic emergencies can be described as any sudden discomfort of the tooth including pain and swelling that arises as a result of the periapical and pulpal infection. Most of the dental emergencies are endodontically related pain and swelling. Endodontic emergencies require unscheduled dental visit to render relief from pain as soon as possible.
Endodontic emergencies on a broader spectrum can be divided in to three stages based on the time of their arousal. The most common causes of endodontic emergencies are pulpal periapical pathosis and traumatic injuries. These are emergencies occurring before endodontic treatment has initiated. It includes reversible and irreversible phases of pulpitis, fractured tooth or acute periapical abscess. Endodontic emergencies can also occur during and after the endodontic treatment.During the treatment in cases of pulpal exposure, improper extirpation of the pulp, fracture of the crown or root of the tooth, over instrumentation of the root canals causing endodontic flare-ups can result in endodontic emergencies. After the treatment is complete, endodontic emergencies can result due to overhanging restoration, vertically fractured tooth, over or under obturation or root filling. Due to the enumerating underlying reasons behind endodontic emergencies, a dentist and his dental office has to be ready for rendering immediate attention to their patients who are victims of endodontic emergencies. These endodontic emergencies are part of the dental practice that can happen on any given day and hence pain managing guidelines of any dental practice should be stringent in addressing these situations.
Diagnosis is the key for any successful dental treatment. At Apollo Dental, our team of highly skilled dental specialists is efficient in identifying the right cause of the dental issue and deliver prompt dental care. It is the expertise of our dentists and quality of our practice with no compromise in provision of world class dental care including top notch standards of sterilization that allow our patients to experience minimum post-operative endodontic emergencies.
Some of the common dental emergencies and their management:
Acutepulpitis and peripapical abscess: These are caused by the inflammatory process extending the pulp and apical structures. Spontaneous pain occurs which becomes severe sometimes needing urgent pain relief. Immediate management includes removal of decay and entire pulp by initiating root canal treatment and drainage of pus in cases of abscess.
Cracked tooth: it is exhibited by not so deep fracture lines but causing severe pain on biting. Immediate management would be grinding the tooth to make it off the occlusion. The definitive management depends on the extent of the fracture lines may it be root canal treatment or extraction.
Traumatic injury: In traumatic cases, pain is the main annoying factor which makes the patient to seek urgent dental care. The treatment should be directed towards pain management first by removing the underlying causative factor.
Emergencies during and after the endodontic treatment: These occur due to incomplete removal of vital pulp, high filling, fracture of the tooth during performing the treatment, over instrumentation, over extended root filling and incomplete infection control. All these cases present with pain and swelling. Treatment includes patient management by reassuring the patients to control patient anxiety, complete removal and debridement of remnants of pulp and debris and correct the procedural errors. Analgesics are given for pain relief. Antibiotics are prescribed if systemic signs are present.Home care instructions are given to the patient like cold compressions to minimize pain and swelling.
Most of the intra treatment and after treatment emergencies occur due to lack of expertise in performing treatment and inadequate equipment. These can be avoided and managed by proper treatment approach. Apollo Dental has all the advanced endodontic infrastructure and state of the art technology merged with adept dental specialists to deliver successful treatment outcome.
