Laser Periodontal Therapy and Endodontics

This week’s installment of ” Name that periodontal-defect fill” is brought to you by a lovely 58 year old female who was referred specifically to treat a failing, non vital mandibular left first molar. Not willing to move ahead with endodontic therapy,and unwilling to move ahead with a fixture( my recommendation) assuming that the tooth was going to fail, She underwent Laser Periodontal Therapy ( a component of LANAP ) and this fistulating, mobile and suppurative tooth was treated. The case was treated in January of this year and the post-op shown was taken this past week.

January 2010 Pre-op

The question remains- is if the the tooth is indeed non-vital, how does one explain the healing from inside the root canal system? ( n.b.- now that the tooth has healed and has none of the aforementioned issues- it is slated for endo, but that is to prevent recurrence moving forward..). What about the laser energy changed the periodontal environment?

September 2010 Post-op

If there are any endodontists or endo enthusiasts out there- points for creativity… and always… dont forget to show your work:
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