Inappropriate Retrofills.

Why am I not surprised that these retrofills were done by an oral surgeon? Can anyone guess what’s missing from this picture?

looking_down

When the picture first loaded my instant reaction wasto snicker.

But I guess there’s a patient attached to that tooth. As well as a 3 (4?) unit bridge. I’m assuming the OS guy didn’t do *that* as well…
Ameloblast

No he didn’t. The bridge was done prior to the surgery.

It’s amazing how nervous people get when they have to consider doing an endo through crowns or bridges.
Dr. Mommy, D.D.S.

my question is this – how the hell did the OS manage to get that amalgam so far down into the canal of the incisor?

second question – why didn’t the GP just refer the endo out to an endodontist if those abutments needed RCT and he/she wasn’t comfortable doing that? aren’t retrofills only supposed to be done on exisiting RCT?

my teeth hurt looking at this picture.
Ameloblast

I remember when I was in school, one of my instructors told me a story of when he was in school and doing a gold foil case on an upper central. There must have been some pulp chamber communication with his cavity prep because by the time he was done he had filled the cavity and the entire canal with gold.

Retrofills are most predictable when put against an obturated canal yes. Unfortunately some people think that 1) the retrofilling they are placing is going to be forever hermetic, and 2) canals only communicate with PDL space through the hole at the tip of the root.
Ameloblast

Forgot to mention that what is missing from the picture is…common sense.

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