“Oh, no, I've been told that I need a root canal. Is this something safe?”
“I've heard people say it's gonna hurt a lot, I heard it's going to fail anyways”
I mean, this is just a little video to talk about the myths of root canals.
What is a Root Canal Treatment?
The way I like to describe it without going into too much technical detail and to talk in layman's terms, basically what a root canal is just we're going in, what we do is we open up the tooth just with a small, tiny little hole, go inside the tooth, find the little channels within the tooth itself, and then cleaning out the channels and flushing it out and putting meds in there right down to the roots. And we then fill it up so that infection can never come back.
Now, so root canals are great options, are great alternatives to pulling teeth out because you actually use your own teeth.
But that being said, there are certain indications where root canals are not recommended. So I will, and that's another topic for another day.
But for today's purposes, we'll talk about the regular questions that I get every now and then about root canals.
Myth: It’s going to hurt!
“Ooh, it's gonna hurt while I'm doing it”. Well, I know me say, when people ask me that, I say, well, it's gonna hurt you if you don't do it. It's going to hurt you even more if you don't do it. So I guess when we, at Tooth Heaven when we do root canals, we make sure you're numb 100% before we do anything.
So to make sure that you will not feel anything throughout the whole root canal process. And even after, you might just feel a bit of a tingling sensation and maybe a little bit of sensitivity there, but nothing extreme.
And perhaps if you need a root canal anyways, the pain that you're probably feeling is going to be way more than what you're going to feel right after root canal is done. To a point where I've had somebody say a funny story. I remember telling this one guy that once we finished the root canal, I said, Sam (of course not his real name) after we've done root canal, just letting you know you've got to come in for the next few visits, because it might feel like it's all done if there’s no pain; however it’s not.
And true enough, he didn't come back for a whole year because he goes, when he finally saw me, he goes, "Well, I didn't think that I needed to come back 'cause it wasn't hurting," but of course the reason why he came back was that because the root canal's incomplete, bacteria has sort of gone back in again, and that will cause even more pain than what he had originally.
So yes, so the myth of it hurting, nah, that's a myth, it's not a fact.
Myth: It’s going to fail anyway!
So why do it in the first place?
I guess the question I have to ask first is why do you think it's going to fail?
There are many causes as to why root canals can fail, and some being the experience of the dentist in the first place, or sometimes the condition of the tooth, maybe it's not, maybe it's, maybe the preexisting factors like the multiple roots in there. And there's just all other factors as well.
So the root canal is not, root canals, I'd love to say that everything, anything and everything will last forever, but we know reality is nothing lasts forever. So they do tend to last for long periods of time, and I've seen root canals lasting for 30 to 40 years even, or maybe even more and they're still going, because they're still alive. So root canals do work, if done correctly, of course. So it's a myth that root canals are going to fail anyways.
Now, another one that I've heard of is, oh, root canal causes cancer. Now, how this came about is there was an article, I'm not too sure released by which company, which association, but it was a study that shows that, I think they looked at 100 people, and they looked at for these hundred people that have cancer, one of the common things that they have is they have root canals.
So then, from then on, they hypothesized that maybe root canal goes to cancer. It's a funny thing because they failed to recognize that, first, it's 100 people only, and the sample size is so small that it's not enough to, you can't generalize based on 100 people.
Now, the other problem is in that study is that they only analyzed older people. They don't analyze the, I guess the younger or the middle aged or, so only people in their 70s or 80s who, unfortunately, are a little bit more susceptible to cancer and all that sort of thing.
Now the other thing is there was no clear link between root canals, the cancer, they just sort of see, like I mentioned earlier, they just sort of see, oh, so out of this hundred people, they all have root canals.
Well, then I could probably say the same thing, well, out of this hundred people, they all drink water as well, so, they all eat, they all eat some types of food, too. They all had bread and rice and carbs and all this sort of thing, so I could say that those things cause cancer in the same way that they think root canals cause cancer. You get what I mean.
So it's a myth, in my opinion, until a solid, concrete study comes out that says root canal will cause cancer, and with a big sample size, I believe it's still a myth.
Myth: Money Grab For Dentists
Now, another myth that people say it's a money grab, money-grubbing way for dentists.
Well, to be honest, with root canals, look, to be honest, root canals are not easy things to do.
As good as we are, the dentists at Tooth Heaven at doing root canals, we prefer to avoid them as well because they are not easy, they're very technique-sensitive, and as I mentioned earlier, if it's not done properly, then of course, as with anything, if anything's not done properly it could cause failure.
So I guess it's very technique-sensitive, it's very time-consuming, and the materials we use are very specialized as well. So for that, obviously with the extra time and extra special materials that need to be ordered in for you, obviously it has to be compensated in some ways for the dentists to be sustainable, to actually want to do it in the first place.
So it's a, generally, it's a myth when it comes to a money-grubbing way for dentists.
Myth: Do I really need 3 appointments, cant you just get it done in 1!?
Well, the answer is yes and no.
It's because I guess there are studies that show that you can actually do root canals in one visit. But that being said, there are certain criterias to it that only then you can do that.
Without going into too much detail, pretty much the chances of doing a one-stage root canal is very, very slim, and it's not very, very common. And it's more common you see people do root canals in two to three visits. Even specialists out there do it in several visits. Now, this is simply because we need the time to put the medications in there to kill the bugs completely.
And both you and I know after a few visits, after a few rounds of anti-bacterial medications that we put in there, and once we know for sure that there's normal bugs in there, that's where we can seal it and make sure that infection can never come back. Because as soon as we leave anything behind in there, there's a chance for things to come back, and then it's going to fail. So the folks at Tooth Heaven, including myself, we want to do it right, and if you're gonna spend that much time and money into it and investment into it, you will want to get it done right with zero to almost minimal, minimal, minimal, minimal chance of having the root canal to fail.
So yes, I guess I hope that answers all the myths, all the questions you might have about root canals.
Of course there are others, but feel free to ask your local professional to find out more or to ring us at Tooth Heaven to find out more, and we'll be happy to help you. As usual, the guys at Tooth Heaven, we don't like to tell you what to do.
We are purely here to advise you, to give you all the options from the cheapest to the most expensive, telling you all the pros and cons in between and then letting you decide whatever you want. And then we'll just go with whatever you choose.
So I guess until the next next video, I hope this video has been able to help you in some way or form, and thank you for watching. Bye now.
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