If you are suffering from a tooth infection that has already spread to the tooth root and root canal treatment has not produced the desired results, apical resection is a possible treatment option. This procedure allows us to save the affected tooth.
What is an apical resection?
A root-apex resection is an oral surgical procedure in which the inflamed portions of the root tip are removed. One of the prerequisites for a successful root-apex resection is that the affected tooth be worth saving—in other words, it must exhibit a certain degree of basic stability and health.
In many cases, teeth that require a root-apex resection have already undergone root canal treatment and therefore no longer have nerves.
What are the symptoms of root-apex inflammation?
When root tips are affected by inflammatory processes, you usually experience relatively severe pain, especially when biting down. In the affected root areas, pus may accumulate or abscesses (enclosed pockets of pus) may form, or a cyst may have already developed around the root tip. If inflammation of the root tip is not treated early and adequately, the jawbone could be compromised.
Procedure for a Root-Tip Resection
We can usually determine in advance, through X-rays, whether a root-tip resection is an appropriate treatment method for your specific case. Today, 3-dimensional imaging is the standard for precise radiological evaluation prior to a root-tip resection. This allows our oral surgery specialists to optimally assess the likelihood of success for the procedure. If we consider the procedure advisable or necessary, we will inform you at our practice about the benefits and risks of a root-end resection. If we decide together with you to proceed with this treatment, it is usually performed under local anesthesia. However, upon request, we can also provide analgosedation or general anesthesia.
As part of the standardized surgical procedure for apical resection, we access the root tip through an opening in the tooth root—this is what distinguishes apical resection from root canal treatment, which is performed through the tooth crown. During a root-apex resection, all inflamed tissue around the root apex is removed; at the same time, the root apex is shortened by approximately 3 mm, and the root canal is immediately resealed (retrograde). This allows bone to reform in the area where the inflammation was (around the root tip). To further optimize the chances of success, the exposed root surface is stained with methylene blue during the procedure after the root has been shortened. In addition to radiological evaluation, this provides us with another very reliable indication of the procedure’s chances of success.
Wound healing takes about a week; just as with wisdom tooth extraction, this procedure—which has become routine for our specialists in Zurich—is performed under sterile conditions.
The wound heals in about a week. As with wisdom tooth extraction, this procedure—which has become routine for our specialists in Zurich—is performed under sterile conditions.
If you would like more information about an oral surgical apicoectomy at our Bellevue practice in Zurich, please feel free to contact us.