The dental field of endodontics (synonym: endodontology) deals with diseases of the pulp-dentin complex (the pulp and surrounding dentin as a unit) and the periapical (located around the root tip of the teeth) tissues. The Greek term endodont means “that which is inside the tooth”.
Inside the tooth, surrounded by dentin, lies the pulp, which is composed of nerves, blood and lymph vessels, and connective tissue. Endodontics takes an important role in modern dental care: it is the last attempt to preserve teeth.
In order to prevent pulpitis (inflammation of the pulp), preventive endodontics is concerned with preventing caries (tooth decay), making the treatment of carious defects as pulp-friendly as possible and avoiding incorrect loading of the teeth.
Acute or chronic inflammation of the pulp or the periodontium (periodontium surrounding the roots) occurs as a result of endodontic disease. The most common treatments in endodontics are pulpectomies: Root canal treatments in which the pulp in its entirety and dentin close to the canal are removed.
Typical steps in the treatment include mechanical (root canal preparation) and chemical infection control (root canal irrigation) to root canal filling and subsequent coronal bacterial-tight closure. In addition, in cases where the initial root canal treatment has failed, a “root canal treatment revision” may be required.
If this is also unsuccessful, a surgical root tip resection (see below Dental surgery/Oral surgery) may have to be performed. In pediatric dentistry, pulpotomies are also successfully used in the initial stages of pulpitis (inflammation of the tooth pulp), in which only the crown pulp (part of the tooth pulp located in the innermost part of the tooth crown) is removed while preserving the pulp tissue in the tooth roots.
