Case studies

A closer look at how complex endodontic cases are assessed, planned and treated - from calcified canals and re-treatment to cracked teeth.

Every case shown here is published with the patient’s consent and fully anonymised - no names and no identifying details.  The aim is simply to show the thinking: what the problem was, what the options were, how the tooth was treated under the dental operating microscope, and how it was restored afterwards.

How each case is presented

Each case follows the same pattern: what the patient came in with, what the assessment showed, how treatment was planned, and the result.  Where X-rays or a CBCT scan helped with the diagnosis, the images are included.  Many of these cases were referred because the tooth was complex: calcified canals, a previous root filling that had not healed, a crack, or a tooth injured years earlier.  The cases are shared to show how these problems are approached and treated, sometimes with more than one clinician working on the same tooth.  No case here is a promise of any particular result.

Cracked tooth

A cracked upper molar: root canal treatment and a same-day crown

A cracked upper molar in a tooth grinder, seen at short notice when biting pain became a constant ache.  Treated and rebuilt in a single visit.

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Cracked tooth

A cracked upper molar from grinding: root canal treatment in a young patient

A cracked upper molar in a woman of thirty with a minimally filled mouth, where years of grinding had done the damage instead.

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Root canal treatment

Deep decay in a lower molar: root canal treatment in a single visit

Decay reaching the nerve of a lower first molar in a young patient, with infection at the end of both roots by the time treatment began.  Completed in a single visit.

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Root canal treatment

A nervous patient: root canal treatment and a crown in one visit, without sedation

A lower molar with a fifteen-year-old amalgam and a nerve that had died, in a patient who was very anxious and declined sedation.  Root treated and crowned in a single visit.

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Root canal treatment

Compromised lower molar: root canal treatment to keep a strategically important tooth

A cracked lower second molar with external resorption, in a man in his late eighties.  That molar carried most of his chewing, and he wanted to keep the tooth.

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Root canal re-treatment

An upper molar with a missed canal: root canal re-treatment thirteen years on

An upper first molar, root treated thirteen years earlier, that had become tender to bite.  A CBCT scan showed a canal that had never been found.

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Root canal re-treatment

Upper front teeth: root canal re-treatment fifteen years on

Two upper front teeth root filled after a cycling injury more than fifteen years earlier, comfortable until recently.  Re-treated in a single visit.

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Root canal re-treatment

Root canal re-treatment: a lower incisor and canine after dental trauma

Two lower front teeth that lost their nerve supply after an injury years earlier, still tender a year after root canal treatment.  Re-treated in a single visit.

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Dental trauma with resorption

An upper front tooth: external cervical resorption after a teenage injury

A man in his forties with no pain at all, who noticed a lump in his gum above an upper front tooth.  The cause traced back to a knock taken as a teenager.

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