[4] Also called Ratner's bone cavity, a neuralgia-inducing cavitational osteonecrosis was first described in dental literature by G V Black in 1920.
[5] Several decades later, oral pathologist Jerry E Bouquot took especial interest in NICO.
[5] The diagnostic criteria for NICO are imprecise, and the research offered to support it is flawed.
[6] The diagnosis is popular among holistic dentists[7] who attempt to treat NICO by surgically removing the dead bone they say is causing the pain.
[9][10][11][12] In its position statement, dated 1996, the American Association of Endodontists asserted that although NICO occur and are treatable in toothless areas, NICO occurrence and treatment at endodontically treated teeth is generally implausible, that the diagnosis ought to be a last resort, and that routine extraction of endodontically treated teeth is misguided.