So, does a retreat of a root canal absolutely never work? My pain is not near the retreated root canaled tooth. In fact, I am fairly certain that the inside pain behind the wisdom tooth is right where the pterygoid muscle is located and corresponds with my TMJ. I'm just confused as to why they would try to retreat a root canal if there is a zero percent success rate? I'm not trying to contradict your advice - I appreciate it so much. I'm just trying to determine how successful my retreat might be.