The words root and canal do not sit easy on the mind when you apply both of them dental work. In fact, it sounds utterly torturous and if you look up the word torture, you will find the word pain thrown in there too somewhere. In the city of Leeds, there are a lot of urban myths built up around root canal treatment. Not so much is said however, about how we turned a blind eye to oral hygiene and kept cancelling check-ups, which kicked off the problem in the first place. The reason for having this treatment is to remove decay that has set in, so that the tooth can be saved. Maybe the myths that surround this procedure are due to the nature of the work required, well, just sounding bad. Here we go…..the decay first has to be removed under a local anaesthetic by scraping out all the dead pulp inside the tooth and then treated with an anti-fungal fluid. Now, the roots have to be drilled out. This can be complex and on occasions, the dentist may have to come through the gum and enter the tooth from the side, then the tooth is filled and capped…..does that sound bad now?! In all reality, it’s a fairly easy procedure that is no more painful than a filling and generally the tooth is good for at least another 10 years. If you still feel concerned, then maybe you should look after your teeth more, because after all, you don’t wanna go through that nightmare again, do you?
Tags: oral hygiene, root canal treatment
