Root Canal (Endodontic) Treatment

This procedure saves your natural tooth that may be causing pain, swelling, or infection from a deep cavity, previous restorative procedures, or trauma.  Keeping your tooth using the training and experience of a Board Certified Endodontist and his Staff is predictable and has a high degree of success.
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Anesthesia Services

Our office provides effective, reliable, and profound local anesthesia ("novocaine") for your dental treatment. We simply will not work on you until you are completely numb and remain pain free. Our well trained Staff will be sure that you are comfortable throught the whole process.
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Diagnosis

When a patient is in pain from a "toothache", but cannot determine where the pain is coming from, our office is equipped and trained to correctly diagnose the cause and source of your pain.  Using medical review, computerized checking of drug interactions, pulp testing, digital and film radiology, photography, operating microscopes, comprehensive dental, pathology, and anesthesia examinations, a diagnosis and treatment plan will be presented.  Re-evaluations and follow-ups are also scheduled to assure that the correct diagnosis was made, and that treatment, if provided, was successful.  An understanding the diagnosis and proposed treatment plan is thoroughly explained to the patient and/or their companion.

Restorative Treatment

After a root canal procedure is completed; a build-up or core filling is often requested by the referring practice to be placed in the tooth. This is to permanently fill and seal the top part of the tooth that you can visually see above the gumline.   Special cases require a post to be placed in the root of the tooth to help secure the build-up filling.  Cast gold and standard posts, amalgam ("silver") and composite restorations can be fabricated.  These procedures are often combined with the root canal during the same appointment and sedation can be provided.

Surgery

A small percentage of root canal treated teeth may require endodontic surgery to completely heal, become pain free, or remove persistent infection or disease from the tooth.  An apicoectomy to treat the root end or tip of the tooth, and fillings will be placed in the root tip of the tooth to seal the canal tip or repair perforations or resorption defects. Trauma cases, biopsies for oral disease detection and diagnosis, exploratory surgery to confirm fractured teeth or cause of disease or pain, and root amputation of teeth are also performed.  Non functional, fractured, or non-restorable teeth when discovered,  can be temporized or removed (extracted) to complete the case.  Operating microscopes are used during treatment, and sedation services are provided.

Bleaching

A tooth can become discolored (gray/brown) by trauma to the area,  a patient’s procrastination of seeking necessary treatment, or from a long standing root canal from years ago that may have been contaminated from microleakage of saliva to the inside of the tooth.  The "walking bleach" technique is where the discolored front tooth is re-accessed and micro-fine bleaching crystals are placed and sealed inside the tooth and changed weekly until the normal color shade returns.  Root canal treatment would be required prior to bleaching, or would already have been done to remove the pulp tissue out of the tooth, therefore the weekly bleach changes are usually performed without needing local anesthesia or sedation in most cases.

Documentation

Our office prides itself in its letters and documents that we have produced for 25 years.  Every exam, treatment, and recall visit generates a written update. Typed dictation, scanning of received paperwork, printing and duplication of digital and film x-rays, digital photography and microscope images of our exams and treatments are provided, as needed, for each patient.  Written, mailed, faxed, or e-mailed communication with referring offices, insurance companies, or out-of-state ("snowbird") home town dentists are provided.  Our office is fully digital and paperless, and written records and images are available to Dr. Russin 24hours/7 days of the week anywhere, using a remote, secure broadband link and a netbook computer.