You may have heard Dr. Artemenko mention at your restorative appointment that he can actually see a halo to wear the nerve in the tooth has previously been…..
With most restorative dental work, we remove the decay from the tooth without anticipation that a root canal will be needed unless Dr A has reviewed an Xray and related to the patient a concern of nerve exposure once the decay would be cleaned out of the tooth completely. In the cases when we let the patient know it may be a possibility we have removed the decay to run into an area that seems to appear as a pink/brown halo indicating where the nerve had been prior to secondary dentin or reparative dentin had been laid down inside the tooth as we mature in age. In most cases it could be said that if the person had been 5-10 years younger the nerve would’ve been exposed at that point but (as seen in the picture) we get to a point where inside the tooth, the dentin continues to lay tooth structure down at a very slow rate. We can place a medicated liner to help with any future sensitivity knowing we are within paper thickness of the nerve away. Although I have heard Dr A mention this to patients over the years, I have not been able to see this appearance myself as Dr A uses ‘loops’ (magnified glasses) and I do not. I thought I would share this information to those who have been fortunate due to maturity to avoid a root canal procedure, to see it for themselves!
After existing restoration had been removed, the chalky/black area of decay exposed
After removal of the decay the ‘Halo’ is now visible
The final completed restoration
