Enamel covers the portion of the tooth above the gumline. Cementum covers the portion below the gumline (the root surface). Hypercementosis is the thickening or increased deposit of cementumon the root surface. It may involve the entire root surface, but more commonly it appears as a bulbous mass involving the root end (called the apex).

No pain or other signs or symptoms of hypercementosis are usually present; typically we will discover that you have the condition during your routine dental x-rays. The characteristic x-ray appearance when hypercementosis is present includes a thickening of the cementum layer as well as blunting or rounding of the root's tip.

* A broken or fractured root Hypercementosis can also be present with none of the above causes. If multiple teeth are involved, we will need to rule out other conditions, such as Paget's disease and hyperpituitarism.

Usually, no treatment of hypercementosis is necessary, but it's important to diagnose the condition in order to rule out the other treatable conditions listed above. The other significant reason to diagnose hypercementosis occurs when we need to extract a tooth with this condition. Frequently, these teeth require surgical extraction in order not to fracture the supporting bone or disturb the healthy adjacent tooth.