Your front tooth/incisor has a root canal in the centre of the tooth and the end/tip of each root is called the apex. The apex allows nerves and blood vessels to enter the tooth. You have probably had a previous root canal treatment on this tooth whereby your dentist had cleaned the root canal using special instruments called files, removing inflamed or infected tissue.
Root canals can be very complex, with many tiny branches off the main canal. Sometimes, even after root canal treatment, infected tissue can remain in these branches. This can possibly prevent healing or cause re-infection later. An apicectomy may be needed when an infection develops or won’t go away after root canal treatment or retreatment.
During an apicectomy, the root tip, or apex, is removed along with the infected tissue. A filling is then placed to seal the end of the root. The procedure is carried out under local anaesthetic and should take about an hour. As access to your front tooth is normally very good, the procedure has agood success rate compared to apicectomies carried out further back.
An apicectomy is the last procedure a dentist can carry out on a tooth before extraction is contemplated.
There is nothing to worry about as the procedure is designed to remove infection at the end of the root.
I hope this helps,
Sunita