Townsville Endodontics

✨🎄CHRISTMAS CLOSURE PERIOD🎄✨

Thank you to all of our wonderful patients and referrers for a stellar 2023! We hope you all have a lovely, safe Christmas and a very happy New Year 🥳
Townsville Endodontics will be closed from midday today (22/12/23) and will re-open at 8am on Monday, 8th January 2024 to allow our team a well-deserved break and some quality, holiday time with their families.

We look forward to serving you all and assisting with your endodontic needs in the new year 🦷☺️

Santa’s little helpers have been out and about this morning delivering treats to our supporters 🎄🎅🍬🍪🎁 We would also like to extend a HUGE thank you to some of our favourite local small businesses for stocking our goody boxes and for supplying our Frank Green merch! Sweeter than Sugar Sweethardies kahlas_kreations Sportfirst Ayr

Extending a huge congratulations to our diligent, hardworking dental assistant, Racheal, for recently completing her Certificate IV in Dental Assisting! Racheal started with Townsville Endodontics when we opened in May as a Cert III qualified dental assistant, and has absolutely smashed her studies since then, completing her Cert IV in just 6 months 😯 (That’s got to be some kind of record, surely!)
We are so proud of you Rach! 🥳💐

Thanks to all of the eager dentists who joined me yesterday to talk about an update on modern approaches to conservative endodontic treatment in Mackay 🦷
We covered everything from diagnostics and case assessment all the way through to obturation techniques and different approaches to restoration of endodontically-treated teeth.
Special thanks to Dentsply Sirona for providing our delegates with the ProTaper Ultimate and TruNatomy systems to practice their instrumentation, as well as the Gutta-Smart thermoplasticised obturation system to get comfortable with warm vertical compaction root-filling techniques 👌

Keep your eyes peeled for my next course in Townsville early 2024!

Unfortunately, our main phone lines to the practice are currently down. If you would like to contact us, please call our practice mobile on 0447 057 295 😊 We apologise for any inconvenience and hope to have this resolved as soon as possible 😊

We are Accredited!

Last week, Townsville Endodontics was granted accreditation through QIP 🤩

What does this mean? 🧐
Accreditation is a recognised, voluntary and formal commitment to:
* Best practice
* Quality
* Standardised systems and processes within our clinic, and the continuous improvement of these.

As a certified, accredited practice, patients, staff and referrers can be assured that Townsville Endodontics is committed to providing safe and quality healthcare service provision ✅

Achieving accreditation was a meticulous process, and involved formal assessment of our policies, practices and protocols against a set framework as per the NSQHS Standard, developed by the ACSQHC (Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care). Profound thanks to our superstar practice manager, Kim, for putting an incredible amount of time and effort into making this happen so efficiently!

🌟🌟🌟

In pursuit of the root…canal 🧐🦷

There are many anecdotal tips and tricks as well as useful technology at our disposal (e.g. CBCT) when it comes to detecting the canal or***ce/s within any given tooth. One of the most broadly cited papers on this topic was by Krasner & Rankow (2004) and was based on the findings of 500 extracted, human teeth.
Three ‘laws’ were proposed based on the common patterns observed, and were developed to serve as a ‘roadmap’ for the predictable location of canal or***ces in most cases.

Of course, there will be exceptions where not all ‘laws’ can be applied, and or***ce location and subsequent canal negotiation may be extremely challenging (e.g. calcification within the pulp chamber and canals, unique/rare canal anatomy or previous iatrogenic destruction of the anatomy of the pulp chamber floor) - these cases often warrant further investigation of the canal system with limited FOV, high-resolution CBCT to assist in guiding the endodontic access, or alternatively, referral off to your local endodontic specialist 👋🤓

My tips for before you pick up the highspeed handpiece:

• Visualise where you expect the or***ces to be based on the pre-op PA, and look for any signs of calcification (a very faint, narrow or thin ‘H’ shaped pulp chamber often indicates the presence of a calcification or pulp stone) - these can be tricky to negotiate. Sometimes a bitewing radiograph can actually be more helpful than a PA in observing the pulp chamber anatomy as there is minimal angulation or radiographic distortion.

• If the tooth is heavily restored or has an indirect restoration, take note of the radiographic long axis of the tooth and compare this to the intra-oral long axis of the crown - sometimes the coronal restoration can suggest the tooth has a more vertical axis, when in fact, there may have been mesial/distal tilting of the tooth preoperatively that has now been masked by the design of the crown/restoration. Always ensure your endodontic access follows the long axis of the roots, as this is what you’re aiming to negotiate!

• Aim for the largest canal first, then continue unroofing the pulp chamber toward where the other or***ces are likely to be. For upper molars this is the palatal canal, for lower molars it will be the distal.

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For any queries or to refer, please contact Townsville Endodontics on 07 4772 0436, or alternatively, reach out via the portal on our website: www.tsvendo.com.au

Following on from our last topic of tooth discolouration, I thought it might be helpful to describe the most common reasons for intrinsic discolouration of teeth, based on the most common ‘colours’ we tend to see.
Together with a thorough clinical and radiographic examination and detailed patient dental history, understanding the most likely aetiology for a particular kind of tooth discolouration is a really important step in planning an appropriate treatment or review schedule.

Cheers to the end of a fantastic first week in our new practice! 🥂🥳
On behalf of the team at Townsville Endodontics, I’d like to extend my sincere appreciation to everyone who has supported us leading up to and during our opening week 🤩
We are thrilled to be able to serve the North Queensland dental community, and are absolutely committed to providing an exceptional standard of specialist care and a comfortable experience for all of our patients.

If you have any questions about the services we provide, or would like to discuss a case or refer a patient, please contact us on 4772 0436, or alternatively, reach out to us online via our website (www.tsvendo.com.au), socials or by emailing [email protected].

We are very excited to share some images of the new practice in the coming weeks, so watch this space! 😁

To bleach or not to bleach, that is the question ☝️🤓🦷

Tooth discolouration is a common reason for patients to present to your clinic, and the desire to improve the appearance of one’s smile is not an unreasonable request.

It is imperative that the aetiology of the discolouration is determined before a treatment plan can be made to address concerns. Different aetiologies require different approaches, and in some cases, additional treatment on top of bleaching is also required to achieve the best result.

Setting realistic expectations from the very beginning and discussing any risks, potential complications and consequences prior to commencing treatment is crucial.
In some instances, cases can be complex to manage and challenging to explain to patients.
Examples of these could include:
• The management of teeth that have discoloured due to calcification or trauma and where the tooth may still possess a vital pulp despite darkening of the coronal structure.
• Determining whether a tooth with historical/previous endodontic treatment should be re-treated prior to internal bleaching.

As an endodontist, these are cases we commonly see and are skilled in the management of, and as part of this management, internal bleaching is a service I am pleased to offer at Townsville Endodontics.

To enquire further or refer, please visit us at www.tsvendo.com.au

Lest We Forget.

I had a fantastic time speaking with the final-year Dentistry students last night at JCU about diagnostics, prognostication and treatment planning in endodontics! We spent so much time chatting and discussing cases that I forgot to get a group photo together at the end 🤦‍♀️ Next time!
It makes me so proud to see all of them so keen to learn more about endo 🤓🦷

One of the topics we covered included getting the most out of your pulp sensibility tests - what to use when, where to place them, how they work and why we use them ✨

Another bite-sized bit of endo for your Thursday evening! In honour of the IADT announcing that registrations are now open for the upcoming (and very exciting) Copenhagen symposium on treatment challenges in dental traumatology, I figured a trauma-themed post was appropriate 😊

Complicated crown fractures can be stressful. Stressful for the patient, and sometimes just as stressful for the dentist when it comes to management. But before you reach for that barbed broach, remember, traumatic pulp exposure doesn’t automatically mean endodontic treatment is required. Often, a lot of these teeth can be treated with a partial pulpotomy, and when this procedure is performed well and a good coronal seal is achieved, the pulp usually recovers and the tooth is maintained for many years to come.

Management of trauma is one of my great interests in this field and is something I am pleased to offer at Townsville Endodontics.
For your convenience, you can find links to the updated dental trauma guidelines under the ‘resources’ tab on our website (these are free to access) 😊

To enquire further or refer, please visit us at www.tsvendo.com.au

Cracking the cracked tooth code - it seems that the biggest challenge is determining ‘how deep is too deep?’ when it comes to treating cracked teeth 🦷⚡️

Fortunately, there are many diagnostic aids that can assist in this assessment, and once you’ve determined the pulpal status of the tooth, identifying the extent of the crack will dictate the most appropriate treatment plan for the tooth.
Of course, the ‘best’ treatment plan for the tooth may not be the ‘best’ plan for the patient, and informed consent is paramount when dealing with these kinds of cases. As the outcome studies available on endodontically-treated cracked teeth are limited to short-term observational periods, we don’t have long-term data to draw on when discussing the likely prognosis or survival of these teeth with our patients.
Some patients may be happy to take the chance on endodontic treatment for their cracked tooth, knowing they may only get another couple of years out of them (if that). Others, perhaps not so much.
When it comes to endodontic treatment for cracked teeth, careful consideration must be given to the extent of the crack, the likely prognosis for the tooth, patient motivations for retaining the tooth, and the financial understanding of the patient.

Assessment of cracked teeth is one of the many services we offer at Townsville Endodontics. To enquire or refer, please visit our website at www.tsvendo.com.au 🦷

Townsville Endodontics will be closed from Friday, 7th April – Monday, 10th April, and we will be back in-office to take your calls and process any referrals from Tuesday, the 11th of April.
Wishing all of you a safe, relaxing Easter break.

When to treat vs. when to refer? 🤔

I get asked this question a LOT, and to be frank, the answer is subjective – it really depends on the experience and skill of the clinician as to whether a case is treatable in-house or is better referred off for specialist management. Of course, some teeth aren’t suitable for endodontic treatment - even that assessment can be challenging at times and involves considering both tooth and patient-related factors.
I like to follow a prognostic checklist for every case - this is a good guide that can help to determine whether endodontic treatment is an appropriate option for the tooth by assessing all tooth-related factors (not just looking at the canal!).
This checklist also encourages consideration of potential difficulties specific to the actual endodontic treatment, which, in turn, can provide a clearer view of the overall anticipated level of case difficulty. From here, it may be easier for you to decide whether endodontic treatment of the tooth in question is something you feel can be managed well in your hands, or whether referral for specialist management may be desirable.

Endodontics is a huge passion of mine. Being able to relieve a patient’s pain, helping them retain their natural tooth or observing a periapical radiolucency slowly disappear after treatment really gets me buzzing – I delight in it. However, there is one thing I find even more exciting than this, and that is when dentists are just as enthusiastic about endodontics as I am. I have been fortunate throughout my career to have some wonderful mentors who have (perhaps even unknowingly) inspired me to be generous in sharing our knowledge and experience to benefit the learning of others, and that is my intention for this page.
I will be regularly touching on various endo-related topics, and I would love to hear any of your suggestions for things you’d like to see here.

Yours in endo,
🦷 Dr Olivia Rae

Townsville Endodontics will be opening its doors to begin treating patients on Monday, the 15th of May. We appreciate our patients and our referrers, and we look forward to welcoming you to our new clinic.

At Townsville Endodontics, we are proud to offer a wide variety of endodontic services, including but not limited to root canal treatment and re-treatment, apical microsurgery, trauma management, vital pulp therapy, assessment of cracked teeth, pain diagnosis and management of resorption.

Townsville Endodontics will be officially accepting referrals from next Monday, the 3rd of April (any referrals received before then will be processed on the 3rd).
Referrals can be made by emailing a completed referral sheet to [email protected], by calling the clinic on (07) 4772 0436, or via our easy-to-use, secure online referral portal, which can be found on our website.

Visit us at www.tsvendo.com.au

Our website is now live! Here, you can find information about our services, our specialist and the clinic, as well as valuable resources for dental professionals and helpful information for patients regarding endodontic treatment and what to do in various dental emergency situations. Referrals can be made via email, by calling the clinic or through our easy-to-use, secure online referral portal.

https://tsvendo.com.au/

Introducing the founder of Townsville Endodontics, Dr Olivia Rae.

Coming soon to Townsville early 2023!