We call it the practice of dentistry for a reason.
Today I had the chance to see one of the very first root canals I did after dental school. If I had to guess, I would say it was my 20th root canal. My friend was traveling to Arizona from Washington, D.C., and needed a root canal on #14. I had completed the root canal on #15 in my AEGD residency following dental school. This gave me the unique opportunity to look back in time at my own development as an endodontist.
When I first saw #15 my thought was, "I did that?" My second thought was, "thank goodness for second chances". Since his flight out of town left in a few hours, we quickly got to work. #14 was diagnosed with an irreversible pulpitis & acute apical periodontitis. #15 was diagnosed as a prior RCT with phoenix abscess.
With my friend's help, I recalled the situation. He was a huge dental phobic, he arrived in tears, the tooth was abscessed, I was working without a microscope & I had less than 2 dozen root canals under my belt.
What a difference of few years of practice (several thousand RCTs) and a microscope can make. We were able complete the RCT #14 and retreat #15 easily.
I expect the periapical lesion on the MB root to heal and that my friend will have both of these teeth for a long time.
Tooth abscess is not the worst thing, There are implants which save us in our times. Look what they had to go thorugh even 50 years ago, just unsuccessful attempts to look nice. People from Germany and GB fly to POland to get their teeth done with one of their clinics-dentalpoland as they have realized it is cheaper to get a whole et of teeth and see bits of that contry. Owing to medicine we can look nice, we only have to feel the need...
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Today I had the chance to see one of the very first root canals I did after dental school. If I had to guess, I would say it was my 20th root canal. My friend was traveling to Arizona from Washington, D.C., and needed a root canal on #14. I had completed the root canal on #15 in my AEGD residency following dental school. This gave me the unique opportunity to look back in time at my own development as an endodontist.
When I first saw #15 my thought was, "I did that?" My second thought was, "thank goodness for second chances". Since his flight out of town left in a few hours, we quickly got to work. #14 was diagnosed with an irreversible pulpitis & acute apical periodontitis. #15 was diagnosed as a prior RCT with phoenix abscess.
With my friend's help, I recalled the situation. He was a huge dental phobic, he arrived in tears, the tooth was abscessed, I was working without a microscope & I had less than 2 dozen root canals under my belt.
What a difference of few years of practice (several thousand RCTs) and a microscope can make. We were able complete the RCT #14 and retreat #15 easily.
I expect the periapical lesion on the MB root to heal and that my friend will have both of these teeth for a long time.
Thank goodness for 2nd chances!