Dentist Questions Root Canal

I have had a second root canal on the same tooth. Why?

I just got a second root canal done on a tooth that had root canal performed on it about 6 years ago. What could be causing this tooth to get infected repeatedly?

3 Answers

A second root canal, otherwise known as a retreatment, may be necessary for a variety of reasons. It is possible that the root canal was not completely cleaned out during the first treatment, it could have gotten reinfected or recontaminated, there could be extra nerves that were treated the first time, or your dentist may have seen something on the xray that would indicated that it needs to be redone.
Tooth anatomy
A canal was missed. Root canal specialists are more frequently offering CBCT cat scan type x-rays to help find secondary canals. I certainly would only visit a specialist who has that technology.