Vertucci’s type V canal configuration in lower premolar (Case 041340)

This patient regular dentist refused to put a post and a crown on this lower right second mandibular premolar judging this previous root canal treatment a bit short (more than 2mm from the apex) and convinced her patient for a root canal retreatment.  After retreatment wich implied a large ledge bypass, carefull examination under the high magnification of a dental operating microscope (DOM) revealed a lingual canal wich separates from the main canal at nearly a right angle. This was a Vertucci type V canal configuration wich required widening of access in a lingual direction in order to achieve straight-line access to the lingual canal. Missing that second canal would have led to a treatment failure. The refering dentist just save his patient the biological cost of loosing that tooth plus the financial cost of replacing it by an implant supported crown. (Cost roughly estimated to 4500$ including one casted post, one crown on a tooth with a very bad prognosis then an extraction of this very same tooth plus one implant and one implant supported crown).