Despite dental care being focused mainly on your mouth and teeth, its various components can result in specific oral issues. There is no real universal way to treat dental problems, so different dentistry areas exist. They exist to treat certain dental issues through specialists’ insight and knowledge. If you’re dealing with a particular dental problem, then it’s imperative to reach out for the right kind of help. You can’t just go to anyone who does dental work and expect them to know how to treat it. Such is the case when discerning between what an endodontist does and what an orthodontist does. By knowing the key differences between the two dental professionals, you can better understand who would be the best to care for your unique dental issue.
What is their Specialization?
An orthodontist and endodontist work within dentistry yet focus on two very different branches. As a specialist in orthodontics, an orthodontist deals with straightening the teeth by correcting the position. Meanwhile, as an expert on endodontics, an endodontist focuses more on root canal therapy and treatments or apicoectomy. Both dentistry fields require a doctorate, but their expertise in fixing teeth is done very differently.
What Do They Treat?
Orthodontist
If you ever had braces, you most likely had given an orthodontist a visit. Beyond straightening out teeth for your oral health, orthodontists are responsible for dental irregularities that affect your teeth and malocclusions, which is jaw positioning.
If you’re unfamiliar with what can be diagnosed by an orthodontist, these are a few conditions they can treat:
- Overbites and under-bites
- Mouth crowing or extra teeth
- Misaligned teeth
- Aesthetic (appearance-related) problems with teeth
- Structural issues
Unfortunately, for people with misalignment issues, it can result in difficulties maintaining proper oral hygiene, problems chewing and sufficiently digesting food, and even speech defects.
Endodontist
If you’re having more internal issues with your teeth, then a visit to an endodontist since they deal with problems inside your tooth. What exact problems exist inside your tooth? Well, they relate to the dental pulp and the nerves in your teeth. If you’re not familiar with dental pulp, it is the center part of the tooth with living connective tissue and cells. It can be a serious issue when this soft tissue is damaged since it’s an important part of the tooth that helps maintain blood flow.
You can expect an endodontist to treat the following dental issues:
- Tooth decay
- Dental pulp from a dental injury
- Undiagnosable tooth pain
- Issues with root canal
Generally, you can expect to see an endodontist when there is a serious issue with your tooth that your general dentist cannot treat.
How Do Their Treatments Differentiate?
Orthodontist
A common treatment that orthodontists typically recommend is braces. Yet, there are other various treatments that they can administer as well.
Below are a few treatment recommendations an orthodontist might give:
- Headgear and face masks to correct developmental issues (usually overbites or under-bites)
- Removable Retainers
- Night Guards to prevent teeth grinding.
In addition, you would be surprised to know that orthodontists can also check for pain from a wisdom tooth that needs removing. They do very few tooth extractions. But they have been known to get rid of mouth crowding, which happens when there is not enough space in the mouth for permanent teeth to grow straight.
Endodontist
Treatments with an endodontist differ completely from an orthodontist. An endodontist speaks to more internal and unique tooth issues that will have varying treatments. However, an endodontist’s most common procedure is a root canal to remove any inflected and inflamed pulp. Not every tooth pain will be the same, so the form of treatment may be different from person to person.
However, they are also the best to see when your tooth has been knocked out of its socket. If you’re worried about having no tooth, you don’t need to worry when you visit an endodontist! They can replant your tooth after you have suffered pulp damage. Also, since endodontists specialize in diagnosing tooth issues, they can perform surgery as a form of treatment to better understand what may be causing any nerve-related pain.
At the end of the day, both an orthodontist and an endodontist are all about promoting optimal oral care. At least now you can understand which one to go to when it comes to a specific dental issue!