Retreatment of Silver Point Obturation: A Case Report and an Overview

Clinicians frequently encounter endodontically treated teeth that contain silver points within their roots. If endodontic treatment is failing, the need arises to remove this metallic obstruction to facilitate successful nonsurgical retreatment. For the retrieval of these obstructions, most of the methods suggest creating and enlarging a space around the obstruction to loosen it before its retrieval. A large number of removal techniques exists including use of a variety of appropriate burs, specialized forceps, ultrasonic instruments in direct or indirect contact, peripheral filing techniques in the presence of solvents, chelators, or irrigants and microtube delivery using mechanical, adhesion techniques. This case report involves the use of several Hedstrom files, inserted and twisted along the length of silver point to entangle the point and withdraw it, with an overview of other techniques of removal of silver point.