Expert: Gary Backlund, DMD, MSD - 7/3/2009

Question
Hey Gary, for bone infections, when a root canal is already done, can bone infections show right away if the infection is healing or not? If not, how long does it usually take for x-ray to show the progress of how the infection is healing?

If there is something such as pain after the root canal, and the infection is not healing, and the infection is causing more pain, will it show up on x-ray that the infection is getting worse? If there is pain from an infection, is that correlated to the infection size on the x-ray? Thanks, talk to you in a bit.

London

Answer
Hi London,

Changes on an Xray occur very slowly...both repair and destruction. We routinely recall our patients 6 months after treatment to evaluate healing but sometimes we need to see them at the one year mark to really know what is going on.This is also true when the lesion is getting larger due to an abscess or a failing root canal.

Hope this helps.

Gary Backlund DMD, MSD