S-5 - “Endodontic Microsurgery: A Dying Art or Rising Phoenix”

Apical surgery was once a significant component of Post-Graduate education and clinical practice; the transition to a microsurgical approach was heralded by a decline not only in the breadth of graduate training, but the prevalence of private practice cases as well. A shift in retreatment expertise is a partial explanation, but not the only one. Qualified mentors, sophisticated armamentarium and shifting treatment paradigms are the denominators in either the demise of the practice or, more likely, the evolution of the modern Endodontic Microsurgical training. Advances in technique and technology allow the surgeon to plan in a digital environment, design precision aids for acquisition to the field and utilize elegant resection and refinement armamentarium. This presentation examines the challenges of the past and present, and how these are affecting an evolution and revolution in the microsurgical arena.