Dr. Nivine El-Refai

Her path

Dr. El-Refai began her career at Cairo University, where she earned her BDS, completed her internship, and served as chief resident in restorative dentistry. She then came to Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, earning a DDS in 1998 and a master's degree in endodontics in 2000.

She has volunteered as an instructor in the university's Department of Endodontics since 2000. In 2014 she became a Diplomate of the American Board of Endodontics, the specialty's highest credential, earned through written and oral examinations and case review. In 2023 she was inducted as a Fellow of the International College of Dentists.

How she works

She believes patients should be treated in a calm, unrushed setting where every option, question and concern gets a full hearing. She reviews your images with you in detail so you can decide with confidence, and she places a permanent filling at the end of treatment to protect the tooth from leakage, one of the main causes of root canals failing.

Her experience covers the hardest cases in the specialty: severely calcified canals, internal and external resorption, dental trauma, and teeth that have not healed after earlier treatment.

Research

• An in vitro evaluation of the residual antimicrobial effects of hydraulically placed calcium hydroxide (2000)
• The effect of three chelating agents on extracted human teeth (1998)

Outside the office

Family time, travel, fishing and the outdoors, tennis, jogging and gardening, and reading, often in another language.