EndoLounge

It’s Vital…with No Fillings…but it Hurts!

September 19, 2014

Radiographs can be so deceiving! This radiograph of the first quadrant looks so calm, so unassuming… everything looks normal. What you didn’t see was the patient attached to this radiograph – having extreme, radiating pain. When everything looks fine on the radiograph, and we have a quadrant full of unrestored or minimally restored teeth, my spidey sense tells me to pick up a probe, and also a transilluminating device…

I’m having a Flare-Up!

March 25, 2013

When our patients experience a “flare-up”, we wish they were experiencing a transcendental jazz trumpet experience, and not the other kind, the endodontic kind! Fortunately, the reported incidence of flare-ups is relatively low, generally somewhere between 1-8%. But when it happens, no one is happy, which is a negative experience for the patient, of course…

‘No’ Treatment is ‘The’ Treatment!

August 21, 2012

A patient presented with pain in the lower anterior area. A fairly good-looking and recent root canal (approx. over 2 months old) had been performed on tooth #4.2. Patient’s pain however had been progressively getting worse since the completion of treatment. The pain was not occlusion-related and analgesics had not been helping either…

Antibiotics: Knowing When Not To Use Them!

July 16, 2012

Inappropriately prescribing antibiotics is one of the main contributing factors in the development of antibiotic resistant microorganisms. The most effective treatment of endodontic infections are: removal of the source of

Too Hot to Handle!

May 30, 2012

After giving adequate block injections and local infiltrations, I usually use intraligamental or intraosseous type of injections. My first choice for a few years has been using a syringe called Paroject. This syringe is used for intraligamental injections which is in a way intraosseous as well since the pressurized anesthetic solution in the PDL space will penetrate into the adjacent cancellous bone…

Don’t Let the Sun Set on Pus!

May 28, 2012

A young female patient developed a very large and extremely painful swelling over night on the roof of her mouth. She had been in pain for a few days prior to the the development of swelling for which she had been placed on appropriate type and dosage of antibiotics…