What’s The Difference Between Dentists & Endodontists?

All endodontists are dentists, but not all dentists are endodontists. Clear as mud, right? To obtain an undergraduate degree in dentistry, students are required to write a Dental Aptitude Request administered by the Canadian Dental Association. Students can apply to and attend one of 10 Canadian dental schools in seven provinces. After completing a four-year undergraduate degree and, in many cases, graduate degrees, a student is eligible to be licensed as a general dentist in Canada. Students interested in becoming a specialist, however, must complete additional education — typically two years long — toward that specialization from an accredited institution. Every general and specialist dentist near you — including endodontists — are regulated by the Manitoba Dental Association.

What is an endodontist?

The word endodontist comes from the Greek words for inside and tooth: endo and odont. The word endodontist, then, can be translated as inside the tooth. According to the Manitoba Dental Association, an endodontist specializes in diagnosing and treating problems with pulp inside your teeth. An endodontist in Winnipeg investigates and determines the causes of oral and facial pain and performs surgical procedures affecting the inside of your teeth, including — and perhaps most commonly — root canal procedures. If endodontists as a group had a slogan, it’d probably be something like “We eliminate pain and save teeth from being pulled.” That, in a nutshell, is what endodontists do.

What types of procedures do endodontists perform?

Root canals. A serious tooth infection can kill the tissues inside the interior of a tooth. A tooth filled with infected and dying tissue can cause extreme tooth pain and result in an infection spreading throughout your mouth, jaw and body. To ease those symptoms and prevent health risks affecting your entire body but to eliminate the need to have a tooth pulled, endodontists will remove infected material from inside your tooth and seal up the tooth to protect it from becoming reinfected. While your teeth are developing, they need the tissues in the interior of your teeth to grow and stay healthy. Once your teeth are fully developed, though, those tissues aren’t needed. Removing those infected tissues (and supporting the infection-free tooth with a crown) will protect your health and restore your complete and symptom-free dental function.

Treating traumatic injuries. Oral injuries are the most common type of injury sustained in sports. Teeth are also frequently damaged in motor vehicle accidents, slip and fall incidents and violent assaults and abusive situations. Some particularly traumatic oral injuries cause cracks that can expose the interior of a tooth to bacteria, saliva, liquids, food particles and even air that can cause serious infections and extreme pain. An endodontist can treat those injuries to protect the interior of teeth and to eliminate those health risks and symptoms.

Apicoectomy. If traditional root canal surgery through which an endodontist accesses the interior of the tooth through the tooth itself is not successful, your dentist or endodontist may recommend you undergo an apicoectomy. Apicoectomies are a more complex procedure than a traditional root canal, and involves accessing the tooth through your gums and through the root itself.

Complex surgeries. Endodontists perform other complex procedures involving the roots and interior of teeth, including the removal of roots and replantations, a procedure where a tooth is extracted to be treated outside your mouth before the tooth is returned to your tooth socket.

Your dentist in Winnipeg will recommend that you see a specialist dentist in the event you experience dental issues or symptoms beyond their expertise or comfort level. In circumstances where the issues and symptoms that you’re experiencing or that are concerning your dentist affect the inside of your tooth, an endodontist near you will be added to your treatment team.