Periradicular curettage

Periradicular curettage is a part of the treatment procedure of periradicular surgery. Its main purpose is to remove pathological periradicular tissues for visibility and accessibility to facilitate the treatment of the apical root canal system, or sometimes for the removal of harmful foreign materials present in the periradicular area. Inflammatory periradicular lesions (granuloma and cysts) are the responses of the periradicular tissues to irritants from the root canal and not from the periradicular area unless medicaments and/or filling materials have been forced through the apical foramina or perforations into the periodontium. Histologically, the inflammatory periradicular lesion is similar to healing granulation tissue, which is composed of cells which have natural and specific immunological defence capability and cooperate by means of cytokines to amplify the protective mechanisms of the host. Accordingly, it is not necessary to completely curette out all the inflamed periradicular tissues during surgery, since this granulation-like tissue will be incorporated into the new granulation tissue as part of the healing process. To control the source of irritants in the root canal is far more important than to remove all periradicular tissues affected by the irritants. The successful removal of all irritants from the root canal system results in resolution of pulpally induced periradicular lesions. In the case where the periradicular lesion is caused by endodontic instruments or cytotoxic filling materials placed in the periradicular tissues, removal of these foreign objects is required for resolution of the lesion.