Clinical management of calcified teeth provides an endodontic treatment challenge and makes up a significant portion of current endodontic practice. Searching for calcified root canals can be challenging and time-consuming and may create a huge loss of tooth structure that is associated with a high risk of fracture and perforation, compromising the prognosis of the tooth. Nowadays, the use of new technologies has increased the predictability of the treatment of calcified teeth. A new clinical approach to a tooth with pulp canal obliteration, called guided endodontics, has been introduced. This technique uses a guiding template, which facilitates the localization of severely calcified root canals. In this lecture, the approach to this clinical challenge will be discussed on the basis of clinical cases, and tips and tricks will be provided in order to achieve the mechanical and biological goals of endodontic treatment.
Objectives
- understand the pulp canal obliteration process and know how to address this endodontic challenge clinically;
- know how to perform root canal access through the freehand approach; and
- know how to perform root canal access through the static guided approach.