Radiographic evaluation of cases referred for surgical endodontics.
OBJECTIVE
The aim of this study is to test the hypothesis that more patients with failed root-canal treatment or other endodontic problems are referred for periradicular surgery rather than nonsurgical re-treatment.


METHODS
Three sets of 100 periapical radiographs representing typical cases referred for surgical treatment were collected in three departments of oral and maxillo-facial surgery situated in different parts of the Netherlands. Of these, a total of 278 radiographs were evaluated to determine whether endodontic surgery was indicated or whether the primary endodontic treatment or endodontic re-treatment was a realistic option. An oral and maxillo-facial surgeon, an endodontist and a general dental practitioner viewed the radiograph independently under standard conditions.


RESULTS
Overall, orthograde root-canal (re-)treatment was considered possible in 63% of the cases. The results differed between the three examiners with the oral surgeon reporting that 41% of cases were amenable to conventional treatment, for the general dental practitioner and the endodontists the figures were 67 and 80%, respectively.


CONCLUSIONS
Based on these observations, it is concluded that most of the teeth referred for surgical treatment to an oral surgeon could be treated by orthograde nonsurgical root-canal treatment.
Doornbusch
H
H
Department of Oral and Maxillo-facial Surgery, University of Groningen, Groningen, the Netherlands.
Broersma
L
L
Boering
G
G
Wesselink
P R
PR
D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D004708:Endodontics; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D005792:General Practice, Dental; D006801:Humans; D009426:Netherlands; D015588:Observer Variation; D010483:Periapical Diseases / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000601:surgery / Q000628:therapy; D010486:Periapical Tissue / Q000601:surgery; D011859:Radiography; D012017:Referral and Consultation / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D019233:Retreatment; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012390:Root Canal Therapy / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D013515:Surgery, Oral; D017211:Treatment Failure