Endodontic Morphology and Anatomy of Human Teeth

Abstract

The aim of root canal therapy is to remove the content of the endodontic space and subsequently to fill it. A correct treatment requires the knowledge of both the external and internal anatomies of the tooth in order to reduce the risk of failure and the possibility of iatrogenic biological damage.

This chapter describes the basic microscopic and macroscopic morphological features of human teeth.

Understanding the crown morphology guides us to the access of the endodontic space of the roots in the most conservative way; the design of the access cavity is described for all the teeth. The study of the morphology of the root canal system with its several variations makes it understandably obvious why there are operative difficulties during instrumentation, as shown by the iconographic part. The morphological and histological tables by Hess demonstrated the radicular and apical complexity of the roots, confirming the difficulty of removing the entire pulp tissue from the endodontic space and encouraging the search for new endodontic techniques and technologies.

The part on microscopic anatomy summarizes the composition of root dentin walls that are the target of the interaction of mechanical (files, ultrasound), chemical (irrigants) and physical (lasers) instrumentation during the therapy. In particular, in order to understand the different laser interactions on tissue using different wavelengths, it is very important to closely examine the ultrastructure and histology of the dentin in the canal.